ISTANBUL, Feb 5, 2010 (AFP) - NATO and the United States pressed European allies Friday to stump up thousands of trainers to help build the Afghan army and police, as troops surge in to battle the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
    At talks between NATO defence ministers in Istanbul, Turkey, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates called for greater efforts to help the Afghans take responsibility for their own security more quickly.
    "More trainers are needed, and needed immediately. I pressed the alliance to meet the long-standing demand for thousands more instructors and mentors for the Afghan army and police," he told reporters after the meeting.
    "As more Afghans join their nation's security forces, we have to be able to train them in order to get them into the fight as quickly as possible," he said.
    The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has amassed around 40,000 extra troops and has begun deploying them in Afghanistan as part of the new counter-insurgency approach aimed at ending eight years of fighting.
    ISAF's ultimate success in implementing the strategy, which aims to protect civilians rather than hunt down fighters, hinges on its ability to train the national army and police, but experts have been notoriously difficult to find.
    Only when the Afghan forces are built to sufficient strength and skill can the more than 110,000 international troops fighting the Taliban and other insurgents, a hard core linked to Al Qaeda, start returning home.
    NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen urged nations "to dig deep and look at what they can do to staff the training mission, either from within their current contributions or, if necessary, by sending more."
    A NATO official said it was likely that some nations, including perhaps the United States, would begin converting some of their combat forces into trainers.
    ISAF wants to expand the Afghan army to 134,000 troops in October 2010 and 171,600 by October 2011, while the police numbers would expand from some 80,000 now, to 109,000 in October, and 134,000 the following October.
    A senior US official said up to 1,700 instructors were needed for the police and army, while up to 2,500 additional mentors were required to work alongside the national security forces.
    The demand for trainers comes as thousands of Afghan and NATO troops prepare a major offensive in south Afghanistan, the hub of the insurgency, in the biggest assault since President Barack Obama announced the surge in December.
    Rasmussen underlined that not all trainers would be in the front line.
    "We still need 1,300 institutional trainers, that is trainers in the training schools," he said.
    "They would conduct their activities in a very safe environment so it is possible for countries to contribute trainers ... without running too high a risk."
    France was the only country to publicly make any fresh contribution to the effort, announcing the despatch of 80 military trainers.
    The personnel will include one mentoring and liason team and instructors to train Afghans in the use of armoured vehicles, French Defence Minister Herve Morin told reporters.
    "I indicated that, given the considerable training needs, France would provide additional means," Morin said, adding that it would bring Paris's contingent in Afghanistan to "3,800 or 3,850" troops.
    "We will also send an additional team of instructors into the area of French responsibility (in eastern Afghanistan) to assist the last Afghan battalion" needing trainers, he said.
    Germany announced last week that it would send up to 850 more troops to Afghanistan, as its focus shifts towards the training programme.