NATO allies may boost troops in Afghanistan: Gates

NATO allies are moving toward sending more troops and civilian aid to Afghanistan even as the U.S. administration considers whether to order tens of thousands of additional soldiers to the fight, says U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates.

"There were a number of allies who indicated they were thinking about, or were moving toward, increasing either their military or their civilian contributions, or both," Gates said at a meeting of 28 NATO defence ministers in Bratislava, Slovakia, Friday.

He praised NATO nations for already doubling the number of troops they have sent to Afghanistan over the last 15 months.

Gates also sought to assure allies that the United States also will remain in the fight, despite the administration's ongoing indecision over a war strategy.

"We're not pulling out," he said. "I think that any reduction is very unlikely."

He said President Barack Obama would consider specific plans for moving forward over the next two to three weeks.

Speaking minutes earlier, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the defence ministers did not discuss precisely how many more troops might be sent.

The U.S. and NATO military commander in Afghanistan, Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, has asked Obama for as many as 80,000 additional American troops to continue the current mission of countering the escalating Taliban insurgency and protecting the local population.

Defence ministers' doubts

However, some defence ministers expressed doubts about sending more forces amid widespread concerns of corruption in the wake of allegations of massive fraud in the August presidential election.

A run-off vote between President Hamid Karzai and his chief rival, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, is slated for Nov. 7.

Dutch Defence Minister Eimert Van Middelkoop said his country is awaiting the final election results before deciding whether to augment its 2,160 troops in Afghanistan.

Danish Defence Minister Soeren Gade said allies won't increase troop levels until they're assured the new government in Kabul is committed to the NATO goals.

Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung of Germany said he also doesn't expect his country to increase its 4,200 troop numbers in Afghanistan when the soldiers' mandate from the German parliament comes up for renewal in December.

An estimated 104,000 U.S. and NATO troops will be in Afghanistan by the end of the year, two-thirds of whom are American, and 3,000 of whom are from Canada.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has maintained that Canada will pull its troops out of Afghanistan by 2011.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay, who is attending the meeting, has said he does not expect Canada will be asked to send more troops or extend its mission beyond 2011.

"Everyone agreed that the plusing up of the American [troops] was going to be a critical component part and that ongoing counter-insurgency efforts would have to continue," he told CBC News in a phone interview Friday.

"So it was a question of resolve and a question that everyone is waiting to have answered is what will the Obama administration do in the final analysis, and we'll go from there."

Further training of Afghan security forces is also key, MacKay said.