By Kristin Roberts

WASHINGTON, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Afghanistan's defense minister asked on Thursday for more money and equipment to fight soaring Taliban violence as America's Pentagon chief criticized NATO allies for failing to deliver promised aid.

Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said suicide bombings were up 50 percent from a year ago and that the Afghan army needed more troops and equipment.

"We have achieved a great deal with limited manpower and old weapons and equipment," Wardak said after meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates at the Pentagon. "Imagine what we could do with better equipment and additional help."

Despite six years of war in Afghanistan, the Taliban regained strength in 2006 and has ramped up attacks on U.S., Afghan and NATO forces this year. NATO forces also have begun to intercept convoys of bomb technology coming into Afghanistan from Iran, according to NATO and U.S. military officials.

Wardak called the past two years "the most difficult and challenging since 2001." The Taliban government was overthrown that year by Afghan and U.S.-led forces.

"The enemy has stepped up his activities, operating in smaller units over a wider geographic area, with heavy reliance on IED (improvised explosive devices) and suicide bombing," he said.

That rising violence comes as NATO commanders say they still face shortages in troops, trainers, helicopters and other equipment needed to fight the war.

The United States, which boosted its troop and equipment commitment to Afghanistan to fill some of those gaps this year, has complained repeatedly about its European allies' unwillingness or inability to meet stated commitments.

NATO defense ministers will meet next week in the Netherlands, and Gates is expected to press his counterparts again to fulfill promises made last year.

"One of the problems that we encounter is that, while we have 40 countries cooperating in Afghanistan to help Afghanistan, both in terms of security and in terms of development, not all of those countries have delivered on the commitments that they made," Gates said on Thursday.

"I expect this subject to be the centerpiece of those discussions, of people meeting the commitments that they've made," he said.

A U.S. military official said attack levels had climbed every year since 2003 in four major categories -- small arms fire, rocket-propelled grenades, suicide bombings and improvised explosive devices.

The number of suicide bombings in Afghanistan this year has already exceeded the 130 suicide attacks recorded in all of 2006, the official said.

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