KABUL, July 17: Nato forces aim to take command of security and reconstruction work in southern Afghanistan early next year and hope to take responsibility for the entire country within two years, a top Nato officer said on Sunday.

Lieutenant-General Ethem Erdagi, the Turkish commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan said that despite the planned expansion, US troops would continue to have a presence in the country.

His comments came amid rising violence in the south and east of Afghanistan, and across the border in Pakistan, where US, Afghan and Pakistani forces have killed more than 60 suspected foreign militants and Taliban insurgents in the last three days ahead of Afghan parliamentary elections in September.

“We are talking about expanding to the south in the spring ... then east,” Erdagi told a Turkish media team visiting Turkey’s troops in Afghanistan.

“Once the conditions are established, NATO will take full responsibility for all of Afghanistan probably within 1-1/2 years, or at the latest, two years,” he said.

“When Nato assumes responsibility for all regions, a certain number of US forces will remain here,” Erdagi added.

ISAF is a peacekeeping force that numbers about 8,000 troops from 47 Nato and non-Nato countries. Nato took command of ISAF in 2003, its first mission outside its Europe-Atlantic area of operation.

The United States leads a separate international force of 18,300, most of them Americans, fighting Taliban insurgents and hunting for Osama bin Laden and other militants in the south and east.

Dozens of people have been killed in the country in the past weeks as Taliban insurgents and their allies step up attacks to derail the Sept 18 vote — seen as the next big step in Afghanistan’s path to stability.

The militants are being pursued by Afghan and US-led forces as ISAF does not have the mandate to carry out offensive operations, Erdagi said.

That may change once ISAF expands its presence across the country and differences among Nato members over the issue are resolved, he said.

“We don’t know yet what kind of decision Nato will make,” the Turkish officer said. “Some Nato countries don’t want Nato to change its rules of engagement, while some countries think the opposite.”

—Reuters