By Alex Spillius in Washington Last Updated: 10:35PM BST 18 Jul 2008  US Defence Secretary Robert Gates [left] and Admiral Michael Mullen take part in a news conference at the Pentagon Photo: AP  "We are clearly working very hard to see if there are opportunities to send additional forces sooner rather than later," Mr Gates told reporters at the Pentagon.  Gates said no decisions or recommendations had been made so far, but Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, who has just returned from visits to Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, said he expected to be able to recommend further US troop cuts this year in Iraq if security conditions continue to improve.  Currently there are 36,000 US troops in Afghanistan and 150,000 in Iraq.  President George W Bush and the two candidates to succeed him next January, Senators John McCain and Barack Obama, have all indicated they want more US troops in Afghanistan next year.  The Gates announcement was something of a coup for Mr Obama, who was first to declare the importance of sending additional 10,000 troops to Afghanistan, which he described as the true frontline in the fight against extremism.  But the defence secretary's disclosure that the Pentagon is now looking to send troops sooner indicates how alarmed Washington has become about the deterioration in security in Afghanistan.  In the latest sign of insurgents growing bolder and more deadly, nine American soldiers were killed on Sunday in an attack in Kunar province near the Pakistan border. It was the single biggest loss of American life in Afghanistan since 2005.  Taliban fighters succeeded in breaching a remote US base, which US forces abandoned yesterday.  Adm Mullen said "security is unquestionably and remarkably better" in Iraq, but portrayed Afghanistan in more urgent terms.  "It's a tougher fight; it's a more complex fight; and they need more troops to have the long-term impact that we all want to have there," he said.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said yesterday he wants to send more troops to Afghanistan "sooner rather than later", signalling a shift in priorities from Iraq amid evidence of an accelerating Taliban threat.