NEW YORK, Aug 30: Pentagon officials who opposed expanding the international security force in Afghanistan now say enlarging it and placing its troops outside Kabul may help secure the country and allow US troops to leave sooner, senior Bush administration officials told The New York Times.

In Friday’s edition of the Times, officials said the shift may be necessary because of the difficulties in rebuilding the country and establishing law and order.

One Bush administration official called the shift a “mid-course correction”, according to the Times.

Foreign nations have been reluctant to contribute troops to a peacekeeping force that would extend beyond Kabul until the Pentagon agrees to help with logistics, command and control and intelligence, and promises to withdraw the peacekeepers if they are endangered, according to the newspaper.

The story said American officials have said that steps to enlarge the peacekeeping force might not come for months and that finding nations to contribute the forces would not be easy.

The force is likely to be more modest than the one proposed by the Afghan leader, Hamid Karzai, the Times reported.—Reuters