February 02, 2008	Saturday	Muharram 23, 1429

BRUSSELS: Belgium announced on Friday it would send four fighter jets and an extra 140 soldiers to Afghanistan this year, as the United States ratcheted up pressure on its Nato allies for reinforcements.

The F-16 fighter-bombers and around a hundred soldiers will be deployed from Sept 1 in Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan where Taliban-led fighters are waging an insurgency, a defence ministry statement said.

They would be deployed “in cooperation” with the Netherlands, it added.

From April, 20 more troops will be sent to help with security at Kabul airport, and another 20 will from October help train and mentor soldiers in the Afghan army, said the statement.

Belgium currently has 418 troops in Afghanistan, part of the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) comprising some 42,000 troops from 39 countries.

Ahead of informal Nato talks in Lithuania next week, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has sent letters to a number of allies calling on them to beef up their contributions.—AFP