KABUL, Jan 17: United States Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Wednesday that he would consider more troops for Afghanistan where US commanders say the Taliban insurgency, controlled from Pakistani sanctuaries, is expected to intensify.

Mr Gates spoke bluntly about the problem of Taliban infiltration from Pakistan following the bloodiest year of fighting since US-led forces overthrew the Taliban in 2001.

Speaking to reporters in Afghanistan shortly before his departure, he said the commander of Afghanistan’s Nato force, Gen David Richards, and others had made a case for more troops and he would consider that.

“If the people who are leading the struggle out here believe that there is a need for some additional help to sustain the success that we’ve had, I’m going to be very sympathetic to that kind of a request,” he said.

Gen Peter Pace, chairman of the US military’s joint chiefs of staff, said America would also discuss troop levels in Afghanistan with other Nato countries.

US commanders said attacks from Pakistan into Afghanistan had surged, several-fold in some areas, last year.

US military officials in Kabul told reporters travelling with Mr Gates that command and control of the Afghan insurgency came from the Pakistani side of the border.

Mr Gates said Pakistan was ‘an extraordinarily strong ally’ in the war on terrorism but militancy on the Pakistani side of the border would have to be dealt with.

Meanwhile, Nato Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has said that an idea from French President Jacques Chirac to create a new body including Afghanistan’s neighbours, troop contributing countries and other international organisations to coordinate operations had won little support.

Afghanistan’s Nato force said it had seized a prominent Taliban commander in a raid in Helmand on Tuesday. He was the first known Taliban leader arrested by Nato and Afghan forces, it said.

Nato also said help from Pakistan had led to the killing of a top Taliban commander in a US strike in Afghanistan last month.—Reuters