NATO: Troops to Hand Off to Afghans in 2011

(AP)  U.S.-led NATO troops in Afghanistan should be able to start handing off responsibility for security to the Kabul government sometime next year, Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Tuesday.

While stopping short of setting a firm deadline, Rasmussen's public declaration puts the security alliance in line with President Barack Obama's promise to begin pulling U.S. troops out in July 2011.

But Rasmussen's latest prediction also reflects a growing realization by NATO that security conditions won't dramatically improve this year, as many hoped. At a NATO meeting in April, the secretary general had said that handing over responsibility to the Afghans was a primary goal for this year.

Some NATO members have already pulled out of the mission or plan to do so soon because of a lack of public support.

NATO members were to meet in Lisbon in November to devise a plan for handing off control to the Afghans, including a timeline for various provinces and benchmarks to measure progress.

Rasmussen said he believes security conditions have improved enough so a transition is possible. However, he said the precise timing of a drawdown will depend upon conditions on the ground.

"We will not leave until we finish our job," he told reporters ahead of a meeting with Obama at the White House. "But it is very helpful to have this roadmap."

War commanders have been more reluctant to put a date on when Afghan troops might take control. Lt. Gen. Bill Caldwell, the head of NATO's training mission in Afghanistan, has said that the alliance needs at least another year to recruit and train enough soldiers and police officers.

Rasmussen said that setting next year as a goal for beginning to wind down troop levels does not conflict with a recent request by Gen. David Petraeus, NATO's top commander in Afghanistan, for 2,000 more troops. Rasmussen said many of the 2,000 troops would be assigned to train Afghan security forces, in preparation for NATO's eventual withdrawal.

"Trainers are the ticket to transition," he said.

He said he did not know if the U.S. or other NATO allies would supply the additional forces.

NATO has been eager to show progress in the war. The alliance's top commander in southern Afghanistan, British Maj. Gen. Nick Carter, said this week that coalition troops will clear the area around the key city of Kandahar by December.

Although U.S. and NATO forces are expected to begin leaving next year, the U.S. government is expected to provide massive financial aid to Afghanistan for years to come.

According to a NATO document, the United States expects to spend about $6 billion a year training and supporting Afghan troops and police after it begins withdrawing its own combat troops in 2011.