A report from the Pentagon says that the situation in Afghanistan is getting worse as the Taliban has gained strength and the pace of attacks on coalition troops and civilians is likely to increase this year.

Despite coalition troop efforts to capture and kill key leaders, the Taliban is likely to "maintain or even increase the scope and pace of its terrorist attacks and bombings in 2008."

The report comes one week after the Afghan national army made its first major attack on insurgents in Afghanistan. The Pentagon says the Afghan army and national police and progressing too slowly and more trainers are needed.

Major - and vast - problems are noted in the report. Government corruption, the poppy trade, human right abuses, reconstruction trouble, not to mention the inability of coalition forces to knock out the insurgents in the south and east of the country.

The report was bluntly pessimistic about the progress of the national army. As of March, it had just one Army battalion and headquarters that could operate independently of coalition forces.

The Canadian contingent in Kandahar is playing a key role in training troops. CTV's Middle East bureau chief Janis Mackey Frayer was embedded into a joint operation with the Canadian Forces and Afghan army Friday.

Frayer said that the Afghans were heavily dependent upon the Canadians in the mission.

Brig. Gen. Denis Thompson, commander of the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan said, "Little by little we build their confidence and capabilities to do this."

The Afghan national army is scheduled to reach a strength of 70,000 by the end of this year, with an ultimate goal of 80,000 soldiers.

Canada has about 2,500 troops working for NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. The majority of those troops are in the dangerous region of Kandahar, a Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan.

There are about 32,000 U.S. troops in the country - 14,000 dedicated to the NATO mission.

As of Friday, the U.S. Defence Department has confirmed the deaths of 527 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, along with 310 from other coalition members.

Since 2002, 85 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have died in Afghanistan.

With a report from CTV's Janis Mackey Frayer and files from The Associated Press