US' Holbrooke to visit India to discuss Afghanistan

(Adds background, details)

WASHINGTON, Feb 4 (Reuters) - U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke will travel to India this month as part of his mission to find a way to stabilize Afghanistan seven years after U.S.-backed forces ousted the Taliban, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.

The officials, who spoke on condition that they not be named, stressed that Holbrooke was going to India to discuss Afghanistan and not to mediate the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan, which have fought three wars since 1947.

U.S. President Barack Obama has named Holbrooke to be his special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, handing one of the United States' most arduous challenges to the man who brokered the 1995 agreement that ended the Bosnian war.

Holbrooke is expected to leave on Wednesday for Europe, where he will attend a security conference in Munich, and then to travel to South Asia, with stops expected in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, the officials said.

U.S. officials said there has been some debate within the American government about whether, and how hard, Obama should press U.S. allies to send more troops to Afghanistan or remove restrictions on those already there.

One official suggested Holbrooke would test the waters for more assistance from U.S. allies on all fronts, including military operations as well as civilian development efforts.

But another said there was a stream of thinking within the U.S. goverment that it could be more productive for Obama to focus on asking for development assistance, given public resistance in Europe to sending more soldiers.

This official said many U.S. officials believe Obama "does come in with significant political capital and that it may be a mistake to focus on military enhancements ... in other words, it would be squandering that political capital."

(Editing by Patricia Zengerle)

Afghanistan

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