Washington, January 13:

President-elect Barack Obama intends to agree to Pentagon plans to send up to 30,000 more US troops to Afghanistan in order to gain time to review the conflict, the Washington Post reported today.

According to the Post, which cites unnamed senior Obama team members and Bush administration officials, the goal is not for an Iraq-like “surge” but rather to gain time for a fresh look at US goals and develop a comprehensive new strategy for Afghanistan.

The new deployments would nearly double the current US force in Afghanistan of 32,000 troops. Gen David McKiernan, the US commander in Afghanistan, had asked for more than 20,000 extra US soldiers to counter a rise in insurgent violence, seven years after US forces first invaded the country to oust the Taliban from power.

Obama, who takes office on January 20, has vowed to boost development in Afghanistan and shift the focus of the “war on terror” from Baghdad to Kabul.