Afghanistan/Pakistan

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has endorsed a new five-year, $17 billion plan to increase the size of the Afghan army by about 50,000 troops. The move follows a proposal from the Afghanistan government, and the price tag includes the costs for routine Afghan Army combat operations and upgrading the air corps, beginning in 2010, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said Friday. He said it generally costs about $1 billion a year to increase forces by 10,000, and another $100,000 to sustain them. Officials are currently looking at ways to finance it. Options include seeking money from NATO allies. Morrell said the proposal would increase the size of the Afghan army from a planned 80,000 troops to roughly 122,000, plus 13,000 in support staff. Currently there are about 65,000 soldiers in the Afghan Army, and that total is expected to hit the 80,000 goal next year, Morrell said.

Top Bush administration officials are urging the president to direct U.S. troops in Afghanistan to be more aggressive in pursuing militants into Pakistan on foot as part of a proposed radical shift in its regional counterterrorism strategy, The Associated Press has learned. Senior intelligence and military aides want President George W. Bush to give American soldiers greater flexibility to operate against al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters who cross the border from Pakistan's lawless tribal border area to conduct attacks inside Afghanistan, officials say. The plan could include sending U.S. special forces teams, temporarily assigned to the CIA, into the tribal areas to hit high-value targets, according to an intelligence official with direct knowledge of the plan. Such a move would be controversial, in part because of Pakistani opposition to U.S. incursions into its territory, and the proposal is not universally supported in Washington. It comes amid growing political instability in Pakistan and concerns that elements of Pakistan's security forces are collaborating with extremists.