"We envisage a 122,000-strong structure, with a total of 134,000 personnel, the extra 12.000 allowing to keep a lot of people in school and training," Major General Robert Cone said.

However Cone, who is in charge of helping to train the Afghan army, did not say how long he expected it to take to assemble a force of 134,000. Originally some 90,000 troops was targetted by 2009.

Currently, the Afghan army counts about 60,000 soldiers on the ground with 8,000 in training, Cone said from Kabul through a video conference beamed to NATO's Brussels' headquarters.

"There has been a growing trend in enemy (Taliban) activities," he said.

"The Afghans feel very strongly about their ability to defend their country," he said. "I personally believe the best people to defend Afghanistan are Afghans."

He said that the Afghan forces now even had an "air corps", dedicated primarily to transporting troops and equipment.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has about 53,000 troops operating in the country under a UN mandate to help give security support to the Afghan government.

There are a further 17,000 troops in an international coalition, under direct US command, charged more specifically with hunting down Al Qaeda extremists.

Related Links
News From Across The Stans

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News