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Georgia Plans To Send 500 Troops To Afghanistan -US Official

WASHINGTON (AFP)--Georgia plans to send about 500 soldiers to Afghanistan next year to bolster the force led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a U.S. defense official said Monday.

Georgia, which wants to join the NATO alliance over objections from Russia, will deploy "the equivalent of a battalion" in Afghanistan in 2010, the U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

Close to 90,000 foreign forces, most of them U.S. troops, are stationed in Afghanistan, fighting an increasingly bloody insurgency being waged by the Taliban and its allies.

Insurgent attacks have reached record highs in recent weeks in Afghanistan, raising concerns about security ahead of the country's second-ever presidential elections, scheduled in two months.

About 2,000 Georgian troops were deployed in Iraq from August 2003 but were rushed back to Georgia in August last year, amid a battle with Russian forces over South Ossetia.

News of Georgia's plans came as the White House said US Vice President Joe Biden was due travel to Georgia and Ukraine between July 20 and 24.

  (END) Dow Jones Newswires
  06-22-091902ET
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