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Afghan talks to seek road to security handover
Sat Nov 28, 2009 2:31pm EST
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By Adrian Croft
PORT OF SPAIN (Reuters) - Britain will host talks on Afghanistan on January 28, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Saturday, just days before U.S. President Barack Obama spells out his expansion of the war effort next week.
The international conference in London, to be followed by a meeting in Kabul, will address progressively handing security to Afghan control, Brown and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said at a Commonwealth summit in Trinidad and Tobago.
That would, in theory, allow NATO countries to draw down their forces gradually as public support wanes on both sides of the Atlantic for the costly war that began in late 2001.
The London and Kabul talks will "outline the framework for an increased lead role for the Afghans in the shaping of their destiny," Ban said.
Brown said he saw the need "to transfer at least five Afghan provinces to lead Afghan control by the end of 2010."
Despite talk of a transition, the immediate focus for the United States, Britain and their allies is how best to fight a tenacious insurgency by Taliban and al Qaeda militants, including calls for tens of thousands more soldiers.
Obama will address Americans in a prime-time televised speech on Tuesday to explain why U.S. soldiers need to be in Afghanistan and the way toward an "endgame" in the conflict.
He is expected to say he is sending about 30,000 more U.S. troops as part of a strategy to accelerate training of Afghan forces and press President Hamid Karzai to improve governance after his re-election in a fraud-tainted vote in August.
"SOMETIME BEFORE 2013"
General Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, expects the United States to be able to start scaling back its forces "sometime before 2013," said Republican Representative Mike Coffman, who was among a delegation of U.S. lawmakers just back from a visit to Kabul.
Karzai has said Afghans would be able to take over security in five years -- in line with McChrystal's target but a goal U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called "ambitious."
Complicating the situation are the issues of Pakistan's efforts against the militants on its side of the rugged border, Karzai's ability to tackle corruption and the geopolitical concerns of India, China, Iran and others.
Obama's strategy decision, after a three-month review, will shape the future of the war in Afghanistan, where 68,000 U.S. troops anchor a multinational force of 110,000 soldiers.
The war will also be a key issue in a British election due by June 2010, which Brown faces an uphill battle to win, and in U.S. congressional elections in November 2010.
Brown said he would announce next week whether conditions were right for Britain to add 500 soldiers to its 9,000-strong force in Afghanistan. He said he expected other countries to pledge an extra 5,000 troops. Continued...
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