More soldiers are need in Afghanistan in the course of 2010 in order for international troops to start withdrawing in 2011, the US is set to tell allies at a NATO meeting in Istanbul on Friday, DPA reported.
The alliance plans to add almost 40,000 soldiers to its 85,000-strong International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) over the course of 2010, fulfilling the requirements set by ISAF's commander, US General Stanley McChrystal.
However, big shortfalls still remain in the missions to train Afghan army and police, a key plank of the exit strategy elaborated by the US, which foresees troop drawdown to start in July 2011.
The US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates would "implore" allies "to to act as quickly as they can to get their forces into the fight, because time is of the essence," Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Thursday.
The US Ambassador to NATO, Ivo Daalder, said 2010 "is a year (when) we are going to do everything we can, so down the road we have to do less. The key here is the more we can accomplish in 2010, the more we can transition in 2011 and beyond, the more we can draw down."
According to NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO countries still need to find 21 more army training teams, known as OMLeTs, and over 100 police training teams, or POMLeTs, in order to bring the Afghan forces up to the current requirements.
Many soldiers and policemen, like most of Afghanistan's population, are illiterate, and need months of teaching to be able to recognize a travel document or a driving licence.
According to a rough estimation by NATO diplomats, 2,000 to 4,000 additional men are needed to fill the training shortfall. Even bigger numbers are required to increase the Afghan security forces to a total of 305,000 men by October 2011, a target agreed by the international community in January.
The Afghan discussions, part of a two-day meeting of NATO defence ministers started on Thursday, were taking place under a mood of cautious optimism.
The launch of a fund to pay 'moderate' Taliban insurgents to lay down their arms, as well as the approval of a new international strategy that lays greater emphasis on strengthening local institutions, renewed hopes that an end may be in sight in Afghanistan after years of bloody fighting.
"I am not prepared to say that we have turned the corner. I am saying that the situation is serious. But I think we have made significant progress in setting conditions in 2009, and we'll make real progress in 2010," McChrystal told reporters on Thursday.
US tells NATO allies: Do more in Afghanistan now to do less later
