officials of the administration of President George W. Bush.

The military is also extending by four months the Afghanistan tours of 3,500 troops of the 10th Mountain Division to keep up the strength of US forces.

The move comes after the administration conducted a sweeping review of US policy in Afghanistan, starting from the middle of 2006, as violence across the country rose sharply.

It also comes as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans to discuss coalition troop strength in Afghanistan with European allies at a meeting Friday in Brussels of NATO foreign ministers.

A senior administration official told the Post that Rice wants to show European governments that the US is not trying to abandon the Afghanistan effort to NATO partners while Washington focuses on the Iraq war.

The Europeans have "serious questions across the board" about the US commitment to the Afghanistan fight, the official said.

The alliance has some 33,000 troops fighting the Taliban, some 10 percent less than NATO members have promised.

On Wednesday Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Volker said Rice would press her counterparts for a more vigorous effort both to fight the Taliban, which is expected to launch a new offensive this spring, and to bolster reconstruction efforts.

"We want to have our own offensive and it should be civilian and military, it should be broad gauged, it should be reconstruction, development, it should be counter-narcotics and it should be security and military as well," he said.

The first Afghan, Pakistan and NATO intelligence sharing centre is due to open formally in Kabul in a drive to improve coordination in the protracted fight against the Taliban and other extremists.

The joint intelligence and operation centre is staffed by six intelligence agents from each of the Afghan, Pakistan and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) militaries - all fighting the resurgent Taliban.

"The centre will allow the sharing of information and reports to be able to better coordinate military operations," Afghan defence ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi told AFP.

"Now how useful and significant it will be - we will wait for the results. Lots has been discussed in the past, lots of commissions and meetings were formed. We will wait and see if this will be useful," he said.

Commanders of the three militaries already meet every two months in a Tripartite Commission.

The intelligence centre's establishment comes amid growing tension between Afghanistan and Pakistan over the Taliban-led insurgency, which has grown steadily stronger since its launch after the hardliners' rout from government in 2001.

Afghanistan has been joined by Western sources in saying elements in Pakistan, including in its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, are backing the insurgency, which was its bloodiest last year with 4,000 dead - most of them rebel fighters.

President Pervez Musharraf has angrily rejected the accusations.

"I take extremely strong exception to anybody (accusing) ... any government agency of Pakistan of cooperating with these extremist forces and sending them into Afghanistan," Musharraf said Wednesday.

ISAF spokesman Brigadier Richard Nugee said this month the new centre was an "extremely significant step forward" against the extremists, who also carry out attacks in the Pakistan border areas.

Nugee said that the Afghan and Pakistan militaries would be brought "much closer together" by sharing intelligence information.