May 04, 2008	Sunday	Rabi-us-Sani 27, 1429

NEW YORK, May 3: The Pentagon is considering sending as many as 7,000 more American troops to Afghanistan next year to make up for a shortfall in contributions from Nato allies, the New York Times said on Saturday quoting senior Bush administration officials.

The newspaper observed that this step would push the number of American forces there to roughly 40,000, the highest level since the war began more than six years ago, and would require at least a modest reduction in troops from Iraq.

The increasing proportion of United States troops, from about half to about two-thirds of the foreign troops in Afghanistan, would be likely to result in “the re-Americanisation” of the war, the Times said quoting an US official.

The planning began in recent weeks, reflecting a growing resignation to the fact that Nato is unable or unwilling to contribute more troops despite public pledges of an intensified effort in Afghanistan from the presidents and prime ministers who attended an alliance summit meeting in Bucharest, Romania, last month.The Times said the shortfalls in troop commitments had cast doubt on claims by President Bush and his aides that Nato was stepping up to provide more help in Afghanistan, where the government of President Hamid Karzai faced a resurgent threat from the Taliban and remnants of Al Qaeda.

“There are simply going to be more American forces than we’ve ever had there,” the newspaper quoted an official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing future military planning.

It said that the officials stressed that no formal new American deployment plans for Afghanistan had been presented to the Pentagon or the White House, and that the decision could be left to the next president, though they would not rule out the prospect that Mr Bush would order a troop increase.

There are about 62,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, about 34,000 of them American, up from just 25,000 American troops in 2005. The American troops are divided into a force of 16,000 who operate under Nato command and 18,000 who conduct counterterrorism and other missions under American command outside the Nato structure, according to Pentagon statistics. The initial planning under way would send about two additional brigades of American forces, or about 7,000 troops, to Afghanistan next year. That would meet two-thirds of what commanders have portrayed in recent months as a shortfall of three brigades, or about 10,000 troops, including combat forces, trainers, intelligence officers and crews for added helicopters and troop carriers.

Bush administration officials initially argued that Nato should fill that void, because the American military was overextended in Iraq. And publicly, the administration has remained mostly supportive of the alliance effort, with the national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, declaring at the Nato meeting last month that in addressing the problems in Afghanistan, “Nato’s answer today is help is on the way”, the newspaper said.

A dozen Nato countries have pledged a total of about 2,000 troops, according to senior Nato officials, who provided the information on condition of anonymity.