MOSCOW, February 11. /ITAR-TASS/. The Pentagon, ahead of withdrawing coalition forces from Afghanistan, is carefully analyzing the military experience gained in that country by armies of the United States and its allies, as well as by Soviet troops during the Afghan war of 1979-1989, a Russian lawmaker said.

"We cooperate with the Americans. It will be difficult to pull coalition troops from Afghanistan. They are now analyzing and generalizing the combat experience gained in Afghanistan as well as the combat experience of Soviet troops in that country," deputy head of the committee on defense under the State Duma lower house of the Russian parliament Frants Klintsevich said at the workshop "the Origin and Consequences of Afghan War of 1979-1989" on Tuesday.

The worship was held at the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 on Poklonnaya Hill.

Klintsevich noted that the limited contingent of Soviet troops in Afghanistan, numbering slightly more than100,000 servicemen, was confronted by more than 200,000 well-trained mujahidins supported by many western countries.

At present, there are about 130,000 coalition troops in Afghanistan plus 120,000 to 160,000 personnel of private defense companies. The lawmaker underlined that the allies were fighting against groups of militants which they had once trained.

"The allies are not fighting any better than Soviet troops. Their losses are now comparable to the losses suffered by our troops in Afghanistan. But it should be noted that Americans or their allies have never fought such intensive and fierce battles as Soviet troops," Klintsevich noted.

President of the Academy of Military Sciences Makhmud Gareyev stated that Americans would never leave Afghanistan. "The main conclusion from the Afghan war is that we have to keep our gunpowder dry, because Americans will never leave that region," Gareyev said.