Poland offers 1,000 soldiers for Afghanistan

Poland announced yesterday it would send 1,000 more troops to Afghanistan in the first offer since an urgent Nato appeal for reinforcements, but it said they would only be on the ground by next February.

Nato's top commander last week requested up to 2,500 extra troops to help combat fiercer-than-expected Taliban resistance in the south before the onset of winter in coming weeks. But nations failed to make any firm offers at talks on Wednesday.

Polish officials agreed with Nato that most troops would go to east Afghanistan rather than southern provinces where British, Dutch and Canadian troops are battling Taliban insurgents.

But Polish Deputy Defence Minister Boguslaw Winid said it was still a matter of discussions if some could be shifted south.

"We have to talk through all details with Nato and the final decision will be made by the president soon," he said in an interview.

While the Polish offer by no means solves Nato's troop and equipment shortfalls, Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer welcomed it and said the contingent could be a reserve force supporting operations across the whole country.

"This is a very important step," he told reporters in Brussels. "If it comes, it would free up other forces. The idea is a reserve for the whole of Afghanistan. We are not linking this to the north or south or east."

Yesterday's announcement confirmed a long-held plan for Poland, which currently has 100 soldiers in Afghanistan, to add troops there as part of a Nato rotation due next February.

Poland's opposition criticised the announcement and military experts said that by sending more troops to Afghanistan, the Polish government was overstretching the army.

"This declaration is too ambitious," said General Stanislaw Koziej, a former defence minister. "We are reaching the limits," he told Polish television.

Alliance officials say it will take total troop levels of its International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) up to 21,000.

"On the timing, it would have been nice to see it earlier," said one Nato source.

"It is urgent to try now to send these 2,500 forces which would make a great deal of difference," the European Union's Afghanistan representative Francesc Vendrell said in Brussels.

No other firm offers to contribute reinforcements had been registered by Nato yesterday, officials said. Commanders are also seeking more attack helicopters and transport planes.

Afghanistan is seeing its heaviest violence since US-led forces overthrew the Taliban in late 2001 after they refused to hand over al Qaeda's chief, Osama bin Laden, the architect of the September 11 attacks on the US.

More than 2,000 people, mainly rebels but including civilians and Afghan and foreign troops, have been killed in fighting this year.