Obama plans Afghan 'civilian surge'
Updated on 30 October 2009
US President Barack Obama considers more troops for Afghanistan but, his administration believes, civilian aid workers and experts are also crucial for the winning the conflict.
Behind closed doors in the White House President Obama is meeting his top military chiefs to finalise his decision on whether to send thousands of troops to Afghanistan.
For weeks, the White House has agonised over the decision - after the US commander in Afghanistan, General McChrystal, requested an additional 40,000 troops to fight the insurgency.
But the administration believes troops alone will not work and that a "civilian surge" of aid workers and experts is vital if the Afghan people are to be won over.
The moves come as Afghan security is tightened across the country ahead of the presidential election run-off on 7 Nov.
Afghan election officials have defended plans to open more polling centres for next week's run-off despite fears not enough is being done to prevent a repeat of the fraud which marred the first round.
The run-off between President Hamid Karzai and his main rival, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, was triggered by a U.N.-led fraud investigation into the first round of voting which found widespread fraud in favour of Karzai.
With little time to organise the run-off, security concerns keeping voter turn-out down in the first round and winter fast approaching, election officials last week said fewer polling centres would be open for the run-off than in August.
But the government-appointed Independent Election Commission (IEC) now says the number of polling centres would increase slightly, largely because of better security in former Taliban strongholds in the south where U.S., British and Afghan forces have been fighting major offensives.
