US to unveil new Afghanistan strategy

The United States is poised to unveil a revamped Afghanistan strategy, with new security, economic and political moves to blunt the resurgence of the Taliban militia, US officials said Thursday.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will announce the plan - which comes as Washington has overhauled its war-fighting efforts in Iraq - during a meeting of Nato foreign ministers in Brussels on Friday, two officials said.
One White House official, who requested anonymity, confirmed a Washington Post report that President George W. Bush will ask US lawmakers for up to eight billion dollars more for Afghanistan.
"That's accurate," the official said a day after Bush met at the White House with the incoming Nato military commander in Afghanistan, US Army General Dan McNeil. "I expect Secretary Rice to say more about it tomorrow in Brussels."
That is where foreign ministers from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) will meet to discuss Afghanistan, where the alliance has about 33,000 troops fighting the formerly ruling Taliban regime - about 10 percent fewer troops than Nato members have promised for the campaign.
The Pentagon announced Thursday it would extend the tours of 3,200 soldiers already operating in the war-torn country. A US official said Rice would press her counterparts for a more vigorous effort both to fight the Taliban, which is expected to launch a new offensive this spring, and to bolster reconstruction efforts.
In Kabul, the top Nato commander in Afghanistan said Thursday he expected shortly an extra brigade to join the force, which has said it needs more soldiers to fight the Taliban insurgency. "I anticipate at least another brigade of combat troops shortly and more after that," International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) commander General David Richards told reporters in Kabul.
Richards did not give details about where the troops would come from, or how many soldiers were expected. A brigade can number up to 3,500 troops. But the Pentagon said 3,200 US soldiers of the Third Brigade, 10th Mountain Division already operating in Afghanistan would remain in the war-torn country an extra four months to keep up the strength of US forces.
US troops make up nearly half of the more than 40,000 foreign troops who are in Afghanistan to battle the insurgency and help reconstruction and development.