9:55pm UK, Tuesday December 01, 2009

Alex Watts, Sky News Online

President Barack Obama is to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, a senior US official has said.

Tens of thousands of US troops may be deployed

He is also asking his NATO allies to send 10,000 extra troops to reverse recent Taliban gains, the official added.

Mr Obama will finally announce his new war strategy in a televised speech at 1am UK time – including a rough time-frame for when the US mission will end.

Sources said US troops will start leaving the country “well before” the end of his first term.

The 30,000 new troops will bring the total US forces in Afghanistan to more than 100,000.

The Pentagon said it expected all 30,000 new troops to be in theatre by the end of August.

Mr Obama is said to have asked for 1,500 extra troops from France, 2,000 from Germany, 1,500 from Italy, and another 1,000 from Britain.

Britain has already agreed to send 500 more troops, and Italy said it would increase its force, but did not say by how many.

But French President Nicolas Sarkozy has refused the request for extra combat troops but may send more military trainers for Afghan forces, his special envoy to the region said.

Mr Obama’s decision to deploy the additional troops over a six-month period represents an acceleration of his long-awaited strategy.

Pentagon officials had expected a phased troop build-up over the next 12 to 18 months.

“We’re going to accelerate going after al Qaeda and its extremist allies,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told CBS earlier.

“We’re going to accelerate the training of an Afghan security force, the police and an army, because we want to as quickly as possible transition the security of the Afghan people over to those national security forces in Afghanistan.”

Obama has been accused of dithering over his war strategy

Mr Obama is also expected to stress the need for Pakistan to do more to fight militants who have crossed into Afghanistan.

Sky News White House commentator Jon-Christopher Bua said: “The irony for this Nobel Peace Prize President as he addresses the nation tonight is that he must escalate a war that he hoped to resolve.

“I am told by my sources that the President will in essence offer a ‘quick in and out strategy’.

“The ‘how quick’ is the rub since the mid-term elections are already underway and the political ramifications of an unsolved war are looming large.

“A power shift in Congress will make it that much harder for President Obama’s ambitious legislative agenda.”