Bush seeks 10.6 billion dollar in extra Afghan aid

BRUSSELS, Jan 25 (Reuters) The Bush Administration will ask the U S Congress for an additional 10.6 billion dollar in security and reconstruction assistance for Afghanistan, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today.

Rice told reporters 8.6 billion dollar would be dedicated to training and equipping Afghan army and police forces and 2 billion dollar to reconstruction.

Rice said the new effort partly reflected a new desire to counter the Taliban's recent resurgence in Afghanistan.

''The challenges of the last several months have demonstrated that we want to, and should, redouble our efforts,'' Rice told reporters as she flew to Brussels for a meeting on Friday with NATO foreign ministers largely focusing on Afghanistan.

A senior State Department official who asked not to be named said the security assistance would help equip and train around 70,000 Afghan soldiers and some 82,000 Afghan police.

He said 2 billion dollar in reconstruction assistance would pay for roads, power, counter-narcotics efforts, rural development and other projects.

The official said U S President George W Bush would ask for the money in a supplemental budget request to Congress and that it was the official's understanding that it would be spent over two years.

REUTERS PDS RN0319