MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

British Armed Forces shrink.

The number of soldiers in the British Army has fallen steeply from 167,000 at the time of the 1982 Falklands Conflict to only about 100,000 now, according to the latest manpower statistics released by the Ministry of Defence in London.

The Army is at its lowest strength since 1828, when it was drastically curtailed after the Napoleonic Wars to 100,000 from 230,000 at the time of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. The statistics show the British Army is now smaller than that of Greece and less than half the size of Germany's. There are serious concerns that a sustained campaign has failed to attract enough recruits into all three services to make up for a shortfall of 10,821 trained personnel, coinciding with a rising number of overseas commitments in the Balkans and Africa, and elsewhere.

The Falklands garrison has fallen to its lowest level since 1982 -- down to 1.300 troops. Other main overseas commitments are 3,000 troops in Bosnia and Kosovo, 1,900 in Macedonia, 450 in Sierra Leone, 1,500 personnel in the Gulf , 3,600 in Cyprus, and 500 serving in various United Nations peace-keeping operations. Another 14,500 personnel are stationed in Northern Ireland.

Total strength of all the armed forces has dropped by one per cent in the past year to 187,643, including full-time reservists, and 3,485 Gurkhas, traditionally recruited from Nepal.

All three services are short of their manpower targets as the number of recruits has fallen for the second year in succession.. The Army is worst affected, needing another seven-thousand recruits. The Royal Navy is about 2,000 short of its target strength of 39,897 trained personnel; and the Royal Air Force lacks 1,911 personnel to reach its target of 51,594.

The dearth of recruits is attributed to the booming economy with unemployment at its lowest for 25 years, and the less active attitude of young people in what is described as the "couch potato" era. A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "We have difficulties with the overall fitness of potential recruits". The RAF faces competition from commercial airlines attracting potential recruits and pilots leaving the forces.

Critics say the recruiting crisis results from years of under-funding and warn that Britain may have to cut back on international commitments. The Liberal Democrat defence spokesman said: "It would be grossly embarrassing if Britain were unable to fulfil a politically important military commitment simply because we do not