"At least 25 countries will send more forces to the mission in 2010," NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen was quoted as saying by BBC Online. This will add up to an additional 7,000 troops from America's NATO allies, he said.

Earlier this week, U.S. President Barack Obama vowed to send an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan to defeat the Taliban-led insurgency. Rasmussen met with the alliance's foreign ministers for an Afghanistan conference Friday in Brussels, where leaders discussed how to meet Washington's calls for more troops to secure the warn-torn country.

Several NATO allies have pledged to send reinforcements: Italy promised an extra 1,000 soldiers, Poland some 600, Britain 500, Slovakia 250, Spain 200, Portugal 150 and Macedonia 80. Non-NATO members Georgia and South Korea are sending another 1,400 troops.

NATO powerhouses France and Germany have vowed to boost police training efforts and may agree to additional military contributions later this year, observers say.

"In addition to the clear pledges already tabled, we have heard indications ... that other allies and partners will probably be in a position to announce contributions in the coming weeks and months," Rasmussen said. "Counting the U.S. contribution, that means ISAF will have at least 37,000 more soldiers in 2010 than it did this year. That is solidarity in action and it will have a powerful effect on the ground."

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hailed NATO's response to the U.S. surge as "positive," adding that it was key for the reinforcements to reach Afghanistan as quickly as possible.

"The need for additional forces is urgent, but their presence will not be indefinite," she said in Brussels.

Rasmussen urged the government in Kabul to do its part to help make the surge successful.

"None of these initiatives are of any use if it is not backed up by good governance, efficient governance in Afghanistan, including a determined fight against corruption, a determined fight against the drug trade," he said, according to the BBC. "So the international community stands ready to assist Afghanistan in promoting economic and social development but it also takes a strong effort from the Afghan people and not least the Afghan government."

The effort is also a military one: While NATO foreign ministers were meeting, around 1,000 NATO troops launched an offensive against Taliban insurgents in the northern part of Helmand province.

Date for US drawdown needed to press Afghans: Gates
Washington (AFP) Dec 6, 2009 - Setting a date for the start of a US withdrawal from Afghanistan conveys "a sense of urgency" to Kabul that American forces would not stay indefinitely, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday.

Defending President Barack Obama's decision to combine a troop buildup in Afghanistan with a target date of July 2011 for the beginning of a drawdown, Gates said the Kabul government had to understand the US military commitment was not open-ended.

"The piece of this that people need to keep in mind that's different from Iraq is our need to communicate a sense of urgency to the Afghans of their need to begin to accept responsibility," Gates told NBC's "Meet the Press," drawing a contrast to a similar buildup in Iraq two years ago.

In a separate television interview, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Afghans wanted to be in charge of their country's security "sooner, rather than later."

But he said it would take two years to train Afghan forces to the point where they can lead operations in many parts of the country.

"By the end of five years term of the current government, we plan to lead operations for the security of the Afghan people in all of Afghanistan, in the whole country. That is our objective," Karzai told CNN.

Echoing comments made at congressional hearings last week, Gates said the United States would remain deeply engaged with Afghanistan even after US forces eventually hand over security to Afghan forces.

"We are not going to abandon Afghanistan like we did in 1989. But the nature of the relationship will change," Gates said.

As the US military presence is reduced, political and economic assistance would take on a bigger part of the relationship, he said.

Gates and other top officials renewed their defense of Obama's strategy on television political talk shows after the president's plan -- unveiled last week -- met with criticism on both the right and the left.

Republicans -- including former vice president Dick Cheney -- slammed the July 2011 date as a dangerous signal to allies and Afghan insurgents while Obama's fellow Democrats questioned the troop surge.

Gates rejected Cheney's charges that the drawdown starting date would embolden the Taliban, saying insurgents were well aware of public opinion in Western countries and always counted on outlasting US-led forces.

"Whether you announce a date or not, they can tell as easily from reading the news media about political support for these kinds of undertakings themselves and they always believe that they can outlast us," he said.

"The reality is though, what are they going to do? Are they going to get more aggressive than they already are? We don't think they can.

"If they lie low, that's great news for us because it gives us some huge opportunities in Afghanistan."

The surge of 30,000 additional US forces would make a difference in the fight against insurgents in the next 18 months and enable the training of more Afghan troops and police, allowing the US military "to begin this gradual process of transitioning security," he said.

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