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U.S. expects NATO to send up to 7,000 troops to Afghanistan

RIA Novosti

13:19 03/12/2009 BRUSSELS, December 3 (RIA Novosti) - The U.S. will request its NATO partners to send from 5,000 to 7,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, a source in the U.S. mission to NATO told RIA Novosti on Thursday.

A two-day NATO foreign ministers' meeting, to begin in Brussels on Thursday, will focus on sending additional troops to the war-torn Central Asian country.

U.S. President Barack Obama said in his televised address to the nation on Tuesday that the U.S. would send an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan in the first part of 2010 to successfully end the war against the Taliban and establish peace in the country.

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen earlier said the 42 troop-contributing nations would deploy at least 5,000 soldiers to Afghanistan.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and a separate U.S.-led coalition, involved in Operation Enduring Freedom, have a total of 112,000 troops in Afghanistan. The U.S. has some 68,000 soldiers in the country, and their number will increase to 98,000 when the new troops are deployed.