US:THE US IS looking for ways to send more troops to Afghanistan amid a resurgence of violence in the country nearly seven years after the ousting of the Taliban regime.
US defence secretary Robert Gates said the Pentagon was "working very hard to see if there are opportunities to send additional forces sooner rather than later".
His comments on Wednesday increased the likelihood of further reductions in US troop levels in Iraq later this year to free up forces for Afghanistan.
Adm Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he expected to recommend additional withdrawals from Iraq in early autumn, provided recent security gains were sustained.
US commanders in Afghanistan have been appealing for additional troops for months as the insurgency has revived.
Pentagon leaders have made it clear that significant increases would have to wait until more troops returned from Iraq but the need to rebalance forces between the two battlefields has become more urgent in recent weeks.
Coalition deaths in Afghanistan have exceeded US fatalities in Iraq for the past two months. Nine soldiers were killed on Sunday in the deadliest insurgent attack against US forces since 2005.
After visits to the war zones last week, Adm Mullen said security was "remarkably better" in Iraq but warned the US faced a "tough and complicated" fight in Afghanistan.
He said Sunday's "well-co-ordinated" attack by hundreds of insurgents against a US outpost near the border with Pakistan demonstrated that the enemy in Afghanistan had "grown bolder, more sophisticated, and more diverse".
Adm Mullen said insurgents were receiving training in tribal areas of Pakistan and warned that all parties - Pakistan, Afghanistan and coalition forces - must do more to secure the border.
Mr Gates denied reports that US forces were massing on the border and preparing to go into Pakistan but said that the US was "ready, willing and able" to help Islamabad tackle militant groups in its tribal regions.
Pakistan pulled its army out of tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan in March as part of a de facto truce with militant groups. Mr Gates said Islamabad must recognise the "magnitude and reality of the danger" posed by militant groups massing in the region.
Barack Obama and John McCain this week pledged to bolster forces in Afghanistan if elected. Mr McCain, the Republican, said he would send an additional three combat brigades - some 10,000 troops - while Mr Obama said he would send at least two more brigades. There are 36,000 US troops in Afghanistan and 150,000 in Iraq. - (Financial Times service)