The mission would come on the heels of the deployment of tens of thousands of soldiers who were sent as part of a surge strategy aimed at crushing a resilient Taliban insurgency, the official said.

"There is now a discussion under way for additional resources, principally trainers, that could be sent to Afghanistan to bolster the mission," said the official, who requested anonymity.

At least 750 of the new soldiers would focus on training Afghan forces, he said, refusing to give more details about the rest of the mission. He said it was premature to say when the 2,000 extra troops would be deployed.

Getting Afghan security forces trained so they can take over security responsibilities is a paramount condition for the withdrawal of foreign troops from the nation, worn down by war.

The US general's request was relayed to the transatlantic alliance's 28 members and it is up to individual governments to decide on whether to make contributions, the NATO official said.

"That discussion will play out over the coming weeks and months and will be led by NATO's military authorities," he said, knocking down a CNN television report that the troops could leave in the coming weeks.

"The idea of 2,000 new soldiers leaving in the next few weeks is not realistic," the official said.

The request for additional troops to join almost 150,000 already on the ground faces a war-weary public in Europe and the United States, nearly nine years after the invasion launched in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

US President Barack Obama has already deployed 30,000 extra US troops as part of a new counter-insurgency strategy aimed at speeding an end to the war.

Nearly 500 foreign soldiers have died in the Afghan war so far this year, compared to 521 deaths all of last year.

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who will meet Obama at the White House on Tuesday, said last week he hoped that foreign troops could begin to gradually hand security responsibilities to Afghan forces next year.

The secretary general said the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has trained more than 140,000 Afghan security forces so far, and the number would more than double by October 2011.

The international community has endorsed plans by the Afghan government to take responsibility for security by 2014.

Petraeus's request for 2,000 more troops comes ahead of a NATO summit in Lisbon on November 19-20 during which the Afghan campaign will feature prominently.

"I hope that the NATO summit in November will decide that the process of progressive transfer of responsibilities to Afghans begins in 2011," Rasmussen said.

But Rasmussen stressed that NATO would stay on the ground as long as Afghan forces are not ready to fight on their own.

"We must stay committed until our job is finished and our job is finished when the Afghans can take full responsibility," Rasmussen said.

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