BRUSSELS, Jan 12 (AFP) - NATO hopes to announce a "milestone" expansion of the alliance-led peacekeeping force in Afghanistan next month, an official said Wednesday.
NATO defence ministers are due to discuss the expansion of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) into the west of the war-scarred country at an informal meeting in Nice, France, on February 9-10.
"The Nice ministerial will be a milestone for this process of expansion and we hope that we will be in a position to announce the expansion to the west by February," said the official, requesting anonymity.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) took over the force in 2003. It was initially confined to Kabul but last year expanded into northern Afghanistan.
The next phase is for NATO to take command or set up four so-called provincial reconstruction teams (PRTs) in the west of the country, as well as a forward support base in Herat.
The process is already behind schedule, and the United States has been pushing its European allies to take over two PRTs run by the US-led Operation Enduring Freedom in the west, as part of the expansion into the region.
The official said the four PRTs involved were at Herat, Farah, Chaghcharan and Kal-i-Naw.
In the longer term NATO plans to expand ISAF into the south and east of the country too, and Washington, its forces stretched in Iraq and Afghanistan, wants its allies to consider an integration of the NATO and US-led forces.
US ambassador to NATO, Nicholas Burns underlined that point in a speech earlier this week.
"It makes sense then to think about an eventual integration of those two missions ... say over the next year or more so that we have a unity of purpose, we're all working together under the same framework," he said.
ISAF currently comprises some 8,000 troops, while Operation Enduring Freedom has 18,000 US-led soldiers helping maintain security.
01/12/2005 17:14 GMT - AFP