Bush says plans to expand size of US military

WASHINGTON, Dec 20 (Reuters) President George W Bush yesterday said he plans to expand the size of the US military to deal with the long-term fight against terrorism, days after the Army said it needed to grow, The Washington Post reported on its Web site.

Bush, who gave an interview to the newspaper yesterday, said he had instructed new Defence Secretary Robert Gates to report back to him with a plan to increase ground forces, the Post said.

''I'm inclined to believe that we do need to increase our troops -- the Army, the Marines,'' Bush said according to the Post. ''And I talked about this to Secretary Gates and he is going to spend some time talking to the folks in the building, come back with a recommendation to me about how to proceed forward on this idea.'' He tied the need for more soldiers to a broader fight against Islamic extremists around the world rather than specifically for the conflict in Iraq, the Post said.

''It is an accurate reflection that this ideological war we're in is going to last for a while and that we're going to need a military that's capable of being able to sustain our efforts and to help us achieve peace,'' he said.

Boosting US forces in Iraq has been one option under consideration by the Bush administration as it seeks solutions to quell the continued sectarian violence there.

Bush gave no estimates on how many more troops would be needed, the Post said.

His call comes less than a week after the Army's chief of staff, Gen Peter Schoomaker, told lawmakers that the Army must keep growing and have easier access to reservists to avoid breaking the active-duty forces.

''At this pace, without recurrent access to the reserve components through remobilization, we will break the active component,'' Schoomaker told a commission mandated by the US Congress to look at issues related to the reserve forces.

The Army already has been authorised to boost the number of active-duty soldiers temporarily from 482,000 to a maximum of 5,12,000, although it has yet to reach that limit. The Army has more than half a million reserve soldiers in the National Guard and Army Reserve.

Gen James Conway, the commander of the US Marine Corps, also has expressed concerns about the strains being placed on his force and suggested last month it may need to grow.

REUTERS PKS RN0504