SYDNEY, July 7: Australia will soon decide whether to send a new military force to Afghanistan, Prime Minister John Howard said on Thursday, as the United States came to terms with its worst single death toll there since the 2001 invasion.

The Afghan government had asked Australia, a close US ally, to send troops and the cabinet would most likely make a decision next week, Mr Howard told a commercial radio station.

“There’s been a standing request from the government of Afghanistan over quite a period of time to a lot of countries including Australia to send troops,” he said.

“Now we are going to look at it. I don’t want to pre-empt what cabinet might decide. But we are going to look at it and if we do take a decision it will be announced next week.”

Australia now has just one soldier there engaged in land mine clearance.—AFP