NATO's top defence officials will examine proposals on Saturday for a big troop surge to contain Afghanistan's escalating insurgency but any such move hinges on a decision by the U.S. president, Reuters qouted NATO military officials as saying. The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, has recommended sending at least 40,000 additional troops and trainers as part of a beefed-up counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan, something being considered by the administration of President Barack Obama. Military representatives on NATO's Military Committee, who provide assessments for their political masters, met McChrystal on a three-day visit to Afghanistan that ended on Thursday. They said his detailed recommendations would be discussed in Brussels on Saturday by NATO's chiefs of defence staff before an Oct. 22-23 meeting of alliance defence ministers in Bratislava. -- SPA
