Defense secretary Robert Gates confirmed what president George W. Bush announced at a NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania: that the United States would increase the number of troops in Afghanistan, regardless of whether troops in Iraq would be reduced.

At the NATO session that included Afghan president Hamid Karzai on Thursday, Bush said the U.S. is determined to win the war in Afghanistan, and would continue to be, even if he had to leave the office in January.

Gates said he advised Bush to announce about the additional combat troops, even though this will be a decision for the next president to take in 2009, as both parties greatly support the victory in Afghanistan, so the promise that the president made would surely be fulfilled, even with someone else as president.

"The president wanted to make it clear that the United States is committed to Afghanistan for the long haul and to send a signal to our allies that at the same time we are asking them to commit additional troops to Afghanistan that they know that we will also continue to have a significant troop presence . . . regardless of the situation in Iraq," said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe, according to the Washington Post.

The decision came after violence has been recently caused by insurgents in several parts of Afghanistan. The American president fears that NATO’s efforts until now will show no results, if they backed down at this moment.

At the summit in Bucharest this week, President Bush also asked NATO allies to take more steps in fighting terrorism in Afghanistan by sending more troops.

"The terrorist threat is real, it is deadly and defeating this enemy is the top priority of NATO," he said. 

Bush praised French president Sarkozy’s decision to send more troops to Afghanistan, which would free some of the U.S. troops to move to the south of country, where they are needed.