Afghan militants are for the first time plotting to attack westerners in Britain and the rest of Europe, a Taliban commander has claimed.

Mullah Mohammed Amin, a former official in the Taliban government, has said militants have stockpiles of weapons and would never give up exacting revenge from "the foreign invaders."

In an exclusive interview with Sky News, he confirmed that Taliban fighters are taking refuge within neighbouring Pakistan and are being helped by locals sympathetic to their cause.

Amin, an official in the Taliban government at the time of the US-led coalition invasion in 2001, said the resurgent Taliban was inspired by tactics used by militants in Iraq, and wants to export terror to the West.

Referring to Tony Blair and George Bush, Amin said: "It's acceptable to kill ordinary people in Europe because these are the people who have voted in the Government.

"They came to our home and attacked our women and children.

"The ordinary people of these countries are behind this - so we will not spare them.

"We will kill them and laugh over them like they are killing us and laughing at us."

He said Taliban fighters are learning from the Iraq insurgency in their use of remote-controlled bombs, land mines and suicide bombers.

He said: "They are our best tactic."