The United States aims to send at least an extra 7,000 troops to Afghanistan by next summer but must also do more to involve Afghans in the fight against the rising insurgency, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said today.
Mr Gates, visiting a NATO military base in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, said he was working to meet a request for more forces from US General David McKiernan, the alliance's top commander in Afghanistan.
"We're going to try and get two additional brigade combat teams, in response to his request, into Afghanistan by summertime," Mr Gates, who will stay in his post in the administration of President-elect Barack Obama, told reporters on board his plane.
There are some 65,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, about 31,000 of them from the United States, struggling to stabilise the country in the face of rising violence from Taliban militants and other insurgents.
One additional US brigade combat team of roughly 3,500 soldiers is already due to deploy in January.
General McKiernan has asked for three more plus extra support units.
A total of more than 20,000 extra U.S. troops is likely to deploy to Afghanistan in the next year or two, according to the Pentagon.
Mr Gates said he had not yet signed off on orders to deploy the next two brigades.
Reuters