Not to be outdone by Barack Obama as the president contemplates whether to send 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced he will campaign for and expects to get coalition partners to commit an additional 5,000 troops to the NATO operation in that country.

The Guardian:

Gordon Brown today said he was leading a drive to get Britain’s non-US coalition partners to commit another 5,000 troops to the Nato operation in Afghanistan.

In a interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the prime minister also dismissed reports that he was planning to “talk to the Taliban”, although he raised the prospect of “mercenaries” fighting for the Taliban being reintegrated into Afghan society.

Brown has reportedly ordered Bob Ainsworth, the defence secretary, and Simon McDonald, a senior foreign policy adviser, to embark on a round of diplomatic lobbying to get other countries to contribute more troops to Afghanistan.

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