Another 500 UK troops for Afghanistan

Published on Monday 30 November 2009 08:54

GORDON Brown was today expected to confirm that Britain is to send an extra 500 troops to Afghanistan after the conditions he placed on the reinforcement were met.

The Prime Minister was also expected to renew calls on Pakistan to step up efforts to track down Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders he believes are hiding in the north of the country.

Mr Brown pledged last month "in principle" to boost the British deployment to 9,500 subject to three conditions.

They were a commitment by the Afghan government to provide sufficient homegrown troops for training, assurances that the British forces could be adequately equipped and that would be part of a coalition-wide deployment with each ally bearing its "fair share".

Mr Brown announced at the weekend that an international conference would be held in London on January 28.

It will seek to secure agreement from Afghan president Hamid Karzai to train 50,000 Afghan troops to help beef-up local police capability and to take action to tackle corruption.