US commits more troops to multi-national Afghanistan force
Allied forces continue to have a large presence in Afghanistan
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Friday, 04, Apr 2008 07:01
The United States government has confirmed its intention to send a "significant" number of extra troops to join Nato's forces in Afghanistan.
President George W Bush told the recent summit in Romania that the US was committed to the cause in the war-torn country, which has threatened to slip back under the control of the deposed Taliban leadership.
Insurgency attacks on coalition forces have escalated recently, and despite already having 17,000 troops stationed there Mr Bush has pledged further assistance from next year onwards.
US defence secretary Robert Gates confirmed the "significant additional contribution" to the stationed armed forces while travelling between the Bucharest summit and Oman.
And he also alleviated Nato allies' fears that when Mr Bush leaves office next year following November's presidential election, the new man or woman in the White House would immediately look to bring some troops home.
"I believe this is one area where there is very broad bipartisan support in the United States for being successful and I think that no matter who is elected they will want to be successful in Afghanistan," said Mr Gates.
One of Democrat presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton's main manifesto pledges involves scaling down the US presence in Iraq.
Both France and Canada - key members of the Nato alliance - have pledged to send more troops to support the effort in Afghanistan.
However, in Canada's case it is under the proviso that other nations deploy reinforcements in southern areas of the country.