The Taliban hold a permanent presence in 72 percent of Afghanistan, a think-tank said yesterday, but NATO and the Afghan government rejected the report, saying its figures were not credible.

The findings by the International Council on Security and Development (ICOS) come in the wake of a series of critical reports on Western-led military and development efforts to put an end to the seven-year Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.

The US government is conducting a wide-ranging review of strategy aimed at countering the Taliban guerrilla and bombing campaign which analysts agree has grown in both scale and scope in the last year.