U.S. aims to send troops to Afghanistan, cut in Iraq

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top U.S. defense officials said on Wednesday they hoped to send more forces to Afghanistan sooner than planned to tackle rising violence there and recommend a cut in troop levels in Iraq.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Pentagon planners were examining if they could get more resources to Afghanistan after requests from commanders there for help.

"We are clearly working very hard to see if there are opportunities to send additional forces sooner rather than later," Gates told reporters at the Pentagon.

Gates said no decisions or recommendations had been made so far. Commanders of NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan were also examining how they might move troops around to bolster the fight against Taliban militants and other insurgents, he said.

"There is clearly a need both for us to see what we can do to provide additional forces but also they're clearly looking within Afghanistan to see how to reposition forces," he said.

The United States has some 36,000 troops in Afghanistan. About 17,500 form part of a 53,000-strong NATO-led force while the remainder operate under a separate U.S. mission.

President George W. Bush and the two candidates to succeed him next January, Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama, have all indicated they want more U.S. troops in Afghanistan next year.

But Gates' disclosure that the Pentagon is now looking to send forces sooner indicates how alarmed Washington has become about the deterioration in security in Afghanistan.

BOLDER AND MORE DEADLY

In the latest sign of insurgents growing bolder and more deadly, nine U.S. soldiers were killed on Sunday in an attack near the Pakistan border. It was the single biggest loss of American life in Afghanistan since 2005.

A U.S. military official said planners were looking in the short term to provide more assets such as helicopters, intelligence equipment, civil affairs specialists and engineers rather than large numbers of combat troops.

In the past, senior U.S. officials have said that the stretched U.S. military could only send more forces to Afghanistan when it scales back its commitment in Iraq, where there are currently some 150,000 U.S. troops.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said security gains in Iraq were not yet irreversible but he could recommend more troop pullouts later this year.

"Security is unquestionably and remarkably better. Indeed, if these trends continue, I expect to be able early in the fall to recommend to the secretary and the president further troop reductions," he said at a joint briefing with Gates.

Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said in May he also expected to recommend troop cuts later in the year.

Both Gates and Mullen reiterated U.S. calls for Pakistan to put more pressure on militants in border areas to stop them moving freely into Afghanistan.

"The bottom line is this -- we're seeing a greater number of insurgents and foreign fighters flowing across the border with Pakistan, unmolested and unhindered," said Mullen, who recently visited Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"This movement needs to stop."

Gates said a report that U.S. forces were massing on the Afghan side of the border to launch operations inside Pakistan was untrue. But he declined to rule out the possibility that U.S. troops could operate unilaterally inside Pakistan.

"We have taken defensive actions when fired upon from places right across the border. Generally, that's been in counter-artillery. And beyond that I think I won't say," he said.

(Additional reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)