The US expects the UN Security Council to approve a resolution this month that would expand the NATO-led force in Afghanistan beyond Kabul, US Ambassador John Negroponte said.
Negroponte, the council president for this month, said he received a letter from NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson asking to expand the alliance's peacekeeping mission into other Afghan cities.
Germany has drafted a Security Council resolution that would authorize an expansion of the 5,500-strong International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which is now confined to the Kabul area.
NATO took over command of the multinational force in August from Germany and the Netherlands. German and Canadian troops make up the bulk of the current force.
Negroponte told a news conference that Robertson's letter cleared the way for the Security Council to consider the resolution expanding the ISAF's mandate -- and he expects a vote before a Security Council mission heads to Afghanistan on Oct. 31.
``We're hoping between now and the end of the month to have a new resolution,'' Negroponte said. ``I would expect action on that before we go on our trip.''
Germany's UN Ambassador Gunter Pleuger is leading the mission to study the work of the UN and ISAF. The 15-member mission, which will include Negroponte, French UN Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere, Russia's Sergey Lavrov and Pakistan's Munir Akram, will be in Afghanistan from Oct. 31 to Nov. 8.
In Kabul, the Afghan government welcomed NATO's efforts to expand the peacekeeping force beyond the capital.
``Providing an additional international security blanket over those parts of the country that need them most would assist in the political and reconstruction processes underway in the country,'' the Afghan Foreign Ministry said in a statement yesterday.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai warned last month that unless the world steps up its reconstruction aid and sends more troops, Islamic radicals could regain control in Afghanistan.
He said peacekeepers had to be deployed in the regions where increasing lawlessness is causing many Afghans to long for the security that marked the rule of the Taliban regime. The Afghan government has little control in most of the 32 provinces, where governors often rule like warlords.
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