NATO says troop surge to allow gradual transition

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Boosting the number of foreign troops in Afghanistan should allow NATO to begin gradually transferring security responsibility to Afghan forces, starting with 10-15 areas next year, the alliance said on Wednesday.

Speaking after U.S. President Barack Obama announced a plan to send 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he expected non-U.S. participants in the NATO-led Afghan mission to provide at least 5,000 extra troops and possibly a few thousand more.

Obama's plan also calls for U.S. troops levels to be scaled down in 2011 as Afghan security forces gradually take over responsibility, but Rasmussen stressed this was not an exit strategy, but one of gradual transition to Afghan leadership.

"Based on what we know about the security situation in different parts of Afghanistan, I find it realistic that we will be able to transfer lead responsibility to the Afghans in 10 to 15 areas and districts next year," he told a news briefing.

He said, however, the transition could only happen if certain conditions were met.

"We will not leave unless we feel sure the Afghan security forces can actually take on responsibility for that specific district or province," he said.

Afghanistan is divided administratively into 34 provinces and several hundred districts. NATO plans a big increase in training of the Afghan army and police to allow them to take over security duties, but the process is expected to take years.

U.S. and NATO commander General Stanley McChrystal has recommended more than doubling Afghan forces to 400,000, which officials say would take until at least 2013.

"NOT A RUN FOR THE EXIT"

Rasmussen said NATO's strategy was not "a run for the exit" and no one was talking about a date for NATO's withdrawal.

"We will stay as long as it takes to finish our job," he said. "The mission ends when the Afghans are capable to secure and run the country themselves."

Rasmussen said he expected non-U.S. participants in the NATO-led Afghan mission to provide at least 5,000 additional troops and possibly a few thousand more.

However, he conceded that this number would include troops sent in last year as election reinforcements. A NATO official said about 1,500 of the 5,000 troops mentioned by Rasmussen were election reinforcements which had been due to be withdrawn.

Rasmussen's figures fall short of the 10,000 troops and trainers Pentagon officials had hoped allies would send to supplement the U.S. buildup.

He urged allies to follow Obama's lead, adding: "It's important this is not seen as a purely American operation."

Raising extra troops will be discussed by NATO foreign ministers' on Thursday and Friday and at a military conference on Monday, but some countries will wait until an international conference on Afghanistan next month before any new commitments.

There some 38,000 non-U.S. soldiers in the 110,000-strong NATO-led force, but waning public support for the war in Europe has discouraged countries from committing more troops.