Spain is willing to increase the number of its troops in Afghanistan on a long-term basis if necessary, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero told the International Herald Tribune in an interview published on Thursday.
Spain currently has about 800 troops in Afghanistan, where the United States has been pushing allies to increase their military presence.
U.S. troop levels have already risen by thousands. Under U.S. President Barack Obama’s new strategy, they will rise from 32,000 at the end of 2008 to a projected 68,000 by the end of 2009.
Here is a breakdown of current main national deployments in Afghanistan, which totals around 96,500 troops as at the end of July.
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