NATO has agreed to step up military and economic efforts to counter Afghan insurgents and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called for a 'new offensive' against Taliban-led fighters.
After talks between alliance foreign ministers in Brussels, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said: 'The message has been clear that the international community intends to keep up the initiative in Afghanistan.
'That means more reconstruction, and we have heard more nations stepping up to the plate as far as their activities are concerned in the field of reconstruction and development.'
Mr Scheffer said extra troops would probably be discussed when NATO defence ministers meet in Seville, Spain on 8-9 February.
However, the upbeat assessment belied developments in Afghanistan, the world's biggest opium producer whose border regions with Pakistan are a haven for drug runners and extremists like the al-Qaeda network.
Around 4,000 people were killed in the insurgency last year, many of them rebels, and US officials say suicide attacks have more than quadrupled since 2005.
NATO leads some 33,000 troops from 37 nations under the International Security Assistance Force, which is trying to spread the influence of President Hamid Karzai's weak central government to outlying regions.
But the Taliban, ousted by a US-led coalition in 2001, is preparing to expand its insurgency in spring.
Mr Scheffer said the allies urged Pakistan, where al-Qaeda is believed to have a base, to do more to stop insurgents crossing in and out of Afghanistan.
The US President, George W Bush, is to ask Congress to provide another $10.5 billion - just over €8 billion - to train the army and police, and for reconstruction in Afghanistan.
The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, said the bulk of the money would be for training and equipping the Afghan security forces.
