President Obama is to ask members of Nato to provide up to 4,000 more troops to help to break the deadlock in Afghanistan.

Mr Obama is poised to confirm a surge of more than 30,000 US combat troops, according to senior military sources. He will also urge the rest of Nato to provide thousands of soldiers to train new recruits to the Afghan National Army (ANA).

His appeal is set to be largely ignored, however. At present only two Nato members have offered more troops — Britain and Turkey — and no other country is expected to come up with any, according to alliance sources. Such a response would threaten the credibility of the alliance in Afghanistan and represent a considerable snub for Mr Obama, who was viewed as a welcome change after the administration of President Bush.

Nato military officials are to meet in Belgium on November 23 at a “force generation” conference in which each ally will be asked to contribute towards the expansion of the ANA, either by sending extra trainers or more money for the training programme.

Mr Obama is expected to confirm that the campaign in Afghanistan needs another 40,000 troops, meeting the request made by General Stanley McChrystal, the US commander in Kabul, more than ten weeks ago, but that a proportion of the 40,000 — up to ten per cent — should be for other Nato countries to provide.

Turkey is increasing its military presence from 720 soldiers to 1,488 having assumed responsibility for Nato’s International Security Assistance Force in Kabul on November 1. Britain has offered 500 more troops but their deployment depends on other Nato countries making similar pledges.

According to military sources, the priority now is to get the balance right between providing combat troops and soldiers who can train Afghan recruits. The meeting in Belgium will give a clear indication whether the alliance is prepared to back Mr Obama with a surge in troop numbers. Nato defence ministers have already given their support to the new strategy for Afghanistan outlined by General McChrystal after his review of the campaign — with the emphasis on accelerating the expansion of the ANA as rapidly as possible.

Under General McChrystal’s plan, the ANA would expand from its current strength of 94,000 troops to more than 134,000 by the end of next year.The ultimate goal is to double the size of the ANA to about 250,000.

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