There are '3,000 trainers we've been short out there. We'd like to get those trainers out there as fast as we can,' the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Michael Mullen told reporters.

'Clearly in Afghanistan the training mission is at the top. We need more trainers than anything else,' he added. 'Clearly it will take forces drawdown in Iraq to provide the headroom in order to meet that mission.'

The United States poured about 30,000 extra troops into Iraq last year to stabilise parts of the country shaken by a bloody insurgency after the 2003 US-led invasion.

It is now gradually reducing troop numbers again, judging that security has improved.

In an interview published Thursday in the New York Times, the US commander for the Middle East, William Fallon, said that as troops were removed from Iraq he hoped to add a 'couple of thousand' trainers for the Afghan army and police.

The United States has around 26,000 troops in Afghanistan operating alongside Nato-led multinational forces to stamp out an insurgency by fighters for the Taleban regime that was deposed in 2002. It also has forces there on a separate anti-terrorism mission.

The Pentagon said last month it would send an extra 3,200 Marines to Afghanistan, 1,000 of which would be tasked with training the Afghan army. -- AFP