Australia to up troops in Afghanistan to 1,550: PM

Australia will increase its troop commitment in Afghanistan by 450 soldiers to 1,550 to reduce the terror threat from the increasingly unstable nation, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Wednesday.

Rudd acknowledged the move would result in more Australian deaths and be widely opposed by the public, as analysts warned the protracted and increasingly bloody conflict could last another decade.

"Today I have announced an increase in our troop commitment from 1,100 to around 1,550," Rudd told reporters.

"Australia concurs with the United States that the current civilian and military strategy is not working," Rudd told reporters.

"If anything, security in Afghanistan is deteriorating.

"To reduce the threat of terrorist attacks on Australian citizens in the future the Australian government has decided to increase our defence force commitment in Afghanistan," he added.

Rudd did not provide a full breakdown of the additional troop numbers but said none would assume a combat role.

Training Afghan soldiers would be the focus of the new push, Rudd said, with a mentoring force of 100 officers to be deployed, along with 40 for military construction efforts and 70 for logistical support operations.

The boost would include a 120-strong infantry company, who would undertake an eight-month tour of duty to provide security for the Afghan elections, due in August.

Ten Australian federal police officers would also be deployed to train Afghan police.

Rudd flagged an unspecified increase in staff embedded at coalition or US headquarters "to ensure that we have direct input and oversight" of Australia's contribution to the multinational force.

Since 2001, 10 Australian soldiers have died in Afghanistan -- many of them in the past six months -- in Uruzgan province, for which Australia has security responsibility.

The movement of US troops into the Taliban strongholds of Helmand and Kandahar had forced more militants into Uruzgan, increasing both the danger to Australian troops, and the importance of their presence, said Raspal Khosa.

"It was only a matter of time before the size of the Australian contingent would increase, and it's gone up roughly by a half," said Khosa, a research fellow with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute think-tank.

"(Australia is) the ninth-largest contributor of forces in a 42-country (coalition), which is significant. We are the largest non-NATO contributor."

While modest compared with offerings from other countries such as the United States, which recently boosted its forces by 31,000 to almost 60,000, Khosa said Australia's commitment in Afghanistan was strategically significant.

"Us being in Afghanistan is really (about) supporting our alliance partner and I think that's the larger reason why we're there," Khosa told AFP.

Khosa said Afghanistan was increasingly violent and more Australians and other foreign troops were certain to die there, with the counter-insurgency likely to run at least another five years, and perhaps another decade.

Rudd acknowledged he was putting more Australians in harm's way in the name of an increasingly "unpopular" war, but said it was essential to bring Afghanistan, "the training ground for global terrorism for a decade," under control.

He said Australia had offered the troops "not as a blank cheque, but with the explicit objective of training Afghan forces so that responsibility for Uruzgan province can in time be handed over to the Afghans themselves."

"Ours is not an open-ended military commitment," he said.

"The successful training of the ANA (Afghan National Army) over time is our exit strategy for Australia's combat units in Uruzgan province."