THE conservative Washington think tank that devised the “surge” of US forces in Iraq has come up with a plan to send 12,000 more American troops into southern Afghanistan.

A panel of more than 20 experts convened by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) has also urged the administration to get tough with Pakistan.

The US should threaten to attack Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters in lawless areas on the border with Afghanistan if the Pakistan military did not deal with them itself, the panel concluded.

The AEI’s “Afghanistan Planning Group”, set up at the request of US officials, spent last weekend putting together preliminary proposals that centre on a surge of US troops in the south.

Senior officials have been briefed on the proposals in the past few days, according to one source. He refused to discuss whether it was the Pentagon or the White House that had asked for the report.

But he pointed out that Robert Gates, the defence secretary, had lobbied hard for extra troops, sending a sharply worded letter to all Nato member countries last week asking for several thousand more.

Gates provoked anger last month with an attack on countries operating in southern Afghanistan that were not deploying enough troops and “don’t know how to do counter-insurgency operations”.

Although other US think tanks have compiled reports on Afghanistan, the AEI’s proposals are significant because they are closest to White House thinking. The institute can also claim success for its proposals for the surge of 25,000 troops in Iraq. Many of the experts who sat on the Iraq panel took part in the Afghan group.

An Afghanistan surge is seen as the only way of ensuring that elections due in April and May next year can go ahead without Taliban intimidation leading to a boycott.

US pressure for more European troops will continue at a meeting of Nato defence ministers in Lithuania this week. But the AEI concludes it is time to accept that the Europeans will not deliver. German troops in the north are not even allowed to patrol at night.

The Afghanistan group said America should send three extra US brigades – up to 12,000 men – into the south. The US has already said it will soon send in an additional 3,200 US marines, some to back up British troops in the southern province of Helmand.

The government will announce this week that British paratroopers will be sent to Afghanistan next month to replace troops there now, but it has no plans to raise numbers above the current 7,800.

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