Barack Obama, the US president, has praised Nato allies for agreeing to send 5,000 extra military personnel to Afghanistan following his call for a greater role for the alliance in the war.
Speaking at the Nato summit in the French city of Strasbourg on Saturday, the US president said the alliance's members had given "strong and unanimous" support to his "new strategy" for Afghanistan.
He said the allies had pledged to boost forces in Afghanistan in order to secure the Afghan presidential elections in August, as well as to further train and fund Afghan forces.
Rob Reynolds, Al Jazeera's senior Washington correspondent, said the US was "sending 21,000 fresh troops into Afghanistan, some of them for training purposes".
"The European NATO allies will contribute, temporarily, in smaller numbers," he said.
"[Obama said] that there would be 5,000 troops and trainers, 3,000 of that will be actual combat troops, the largest contingent of that force will be ... from Britain."
'Joint effort'
Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, said 900 troops will come from the UK, 600 from Germany and 600 from Spain.
Italy and France would also commit forces, he said.
Speaking about Afghanistan earlier on Friday, Obama had said that "Europe should not simply expect the United States to shoulder that burden alone".
Shortly after taking office in January, Obama pledged to send 21,000 more troops to Afghanistan and is reportedly considering sending 10,000 more.
More than 70,000 foreign troops are already stationed in Afghanistan.
European welcome
Both Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, met Obama before the summit got under way.
Speaking at a news conference with Obama on Friday, Sarkozy gave his support to "the new American strategy in Afghanistan".
He said France, which has just been admitted back into Nato's military command structure after a 43-year absence, was "ready to do more" in the field of police training and economic aid, but had initially been tentative about increasing troops.
Merkel, the summit's co-host, said after talks with Obama in Baden Baden in Germany: "We have a great responsibility here. We want to carry our share of the responsibility, militarily, in the area of civil reconstruction and in police training."
"[The Obama administration's approach to Afghanistan] complements fully what Germany has in mind - a comprehensive approach,'' she said.
Following the end of the Nato summit on Saturday, Obama headed to Prague, the Czech capital, where he will meet with EU leaders over the weekend.