NATO needs 10,000 more troops to help provide security for elections in Afghanistan this year, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Monday.
"The elections demand an additional effort," he told members of the Belgian parliament's foreign affairs committee, putting the number at "10,000 troops for four months".
The polls are scheduled for late this year — no date has been set — and will be a key test of seven-year-old US and NATO-led efforts to build a democratically elected central government in Afghanistan.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) comprises over 51,000 troops from nearly 40 countries, according to figures released last month.
Most of them are deployed in the south and east of the country, where Taliban militants are most active, to help bring security and extend the government's authority to allow reconstruction and development.
Earlier at NATO headquarters Monday, Scheffer urged the alliance's European allies to make greater troop and aid contributions to match new US efforts expected this year.
"I strongly hope that will also see the other allies step up, with more forces, and when that's not possible, with more civilian aid," he told reporters.
"We need more forces, because there are still too many spoilers," he said, and added: "2009 will not be an easy year in Afghanistan. There will certainly be more violence."
"Successful elections will be of extreme importance," he said.
