KABUL, Sept 10: The Afghan government and its international partners agreed on Wednesday to expand the national army to 134,000 soldiers, almost double its current strength, the United Nations said.

The decision was adopted at a meeting in Kabul of the Afghan government and its partners, including the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (Unama).

It comes as the country battles a wave of violence by Taliban-led insurgents and other Islamic factions that has put Afghanistan on the frontline of the US-led “war on terror”.

“This increase is a huge step towards ensuring the Afghan government has the number of soldiers it needs and that it can gradually take over the responsibility for the security of the country,” Unama chief Kai Eide said.

“We all know that ensuring security for all Afghans is of paramount importance,” Eide said in a statement.

The Afghan army, which was destroyed during the civil war of the 1990s that was followed by the 1996-2001 rule of the Taliban, is being trained and equipped with international help and has reached about 80,000.

It is projected to reach 134,000 within three years and is needed to tackle the insurgent threat with the help of a Nato-led deployment, defence ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi told AFP.

“The figure will resolve internal threats with the presence of Nato forces,” he said.But another defence official, who did not want to be identified, said even the new figure would not be enough to allow Afghanistan to defend itself without international help.

Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak has said previously the army should number at least 200,000.

There is new emphasis on training the Afghan security forces so they can take over from their international allies, who are often viewed with suspicion in Afghanistan.

Commanders of the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force, which numbers about 53,000 soldiers from around 40 countries, have long called for more manpower and equipment to tackle the insurgent threat.

Meanwhile, Afghans have welcomed a US decision to send more troops but have reiterated that the strengthening of Afghan security forces was the long-term answer to defeat militants.

President George W. Bush announced on Tuesday the United States would withdraw about 8,000 combat and support personnel from Iraq by February 2009.

He said a fresh Marine battalion and an Army combat brigade would go to Afghanistan by January, in response to soaring attacks by militants nearly seven years after the Al Qaeda-backed Taliban were ousted.

“The government has a common stance on this: we need and welcome more foreign troops to tackle the war along with local forces,” said chief presidential spokesman Humayun Hamidzada.

“In the long term, the strengthening of national entities, their training and equipping, is the solution,” he added. The United States has 33,000 troops in Afghanistan, about half the total number of foreign troops in the country.

President Hamid Karzai, who has led Afghanistan since shortly after the Taliban were ousted, said last month the presence of foreign troops had not led to the success of the war but had resulted in civilian casualties.

The Taliban said sending more troops would not solve Afghanistan’s ills. “Sending troops to Afghanistan won’t solve problems but intensify fighting and provide more opportunities for Taliban fighters to attack their enemy,” a spokesman for the group, Zabihullah Mujahid, told the AIP news agency.—Agencies