President George Bush is expected to say the improved security situation in Iraq will permit a ""quiet surge"" of troops in Afghanistan.Y

The U.S. will withdraw about 8,000 of its 146,000 soldiers in Iraq by February - and send 4,500 more to join the 33,000 in Afghanistan.
Bush is expected to say in a speech to the U.S. National Defense University that the improved security situation in Iraq will permit a ""quiet surge"" of troops in Afghanistan in the coming months.
""While the progress in Iraq is still fragile and reversible ... there now appears to be a 'degree of durability' to the gains we have made,"" Bush will say.
However he will state that efforts in Afghanistan must now be ramped up.
""For all the good work we have done in that country, it is clear we must do even more. Unlike Iraq, it has few natural resources and has an underdeveloped infrastructure. Its democratic institutions are fragile,"" Bush will explain.
He will make clear that longer-term decisions about the deployments will be left to General David Petraeus, soon to become the Commander of U.S. Central Command, and Mr Bush's successor as president, who will take office in January.
""If the progress in Iraq continues to hold, Gen Petraeus and our military leaders believe additional reductions will be possible in the first half of 2009,"" Bush will say.
In his speech the President is also expected to intensify pressure on Pakistan by naming it among the major battlegrounds in the global war on terrorism.
He will say it has a ""responsibility"" to fight extremists ""because every nation has an obligation to govern its own territory and make certain that it does not become a safe haven for terror.""
Bush's message comes after reports of strikes inside Pakistan by U.S. troops based in Afghanistan, which accuses Pakistan of at least turning a blind eye to cross-border violence.
The U.S. is currently negotiating with the Iraqi government for a security agreement to cover American forces' presence in the country, as their UN mandate will shortly expire.
Last month, Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, said that he had tentatively agreed with the U.S. military that foreign combat troops would withdraw altogether by 2011.
(Source: telegraph.co.uk)