INNICH: The German general commanding NATO forces in Afghanistan on Thursday criticised the United Nations decision to evacuate more than half its international staff based there.

"I have just heard that the UNAMA (UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan) is going to withdraw personnel from Afghanistan," General Egon Ramms told journalists at the Innich command bunker on the Dutch-German border.

"I am not very satisfied," he said.

"By withdrawing personnel from Afghanistan it will not be able to reach the progress and success we need," he said after the UN said it would relocate 600 expatriate staff following a deadly Taliban attack on a UN guesthouse.

"The clock is ticking against us -- support of the population is decreasing," the general said. "In 2005, 80 percent of the population supported us, now it is only 52 percent."

"Reconstruction and security rely on each other," Ramms said, stressing the importance of civilian and military cooperation in rebuilding the war-ravaged country.

The UN stressed after its decision to evacuate that it had no intention of abandoning Afghanistan, where 100,000 US-led troops are deployed as part of NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

This year has been the deadliest in an eight-year anti-insurgency campaign being fought by NATO and US-led forces.