U.S. wants allies' new troops in Afghanistan by mid-2010

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States aims to get all new troops pledged by allies into Afghanistan in the first half of 2010 and wants the Netherlands and Canada to "stay with us" despite withdrawal plans, a Pentagon official said on Monday.

U.S. allies are pledging as many as 7,000 additional forces for the eight-year-old Afghan mission and deploying them quickly would accentuate the impact of U.S. President Barack Obama's surge of 30,000 U.S. troops.

"In terms of the force flow, the goal is to get them all in by, in the first half, if possible, of 2010," Michele Flournoy, U.S. undersecretary of defense for policy, told a conference in Washington.

"We are still working together to actually get them into the force flow so I can't give you a lot of detail on that."

She acknowledged that some of the additional troops being committed by allies are actually already in Afghanistan, deployed as part of a temporary buildup to protect the country's August elections from Taliban violence.

"There are some allies who had surged for the elections that will have their forces stay. But most of the plus up is actually new forces coming in, either units or trainers or mentoring teams," Flournoy said. She did not offer a figure.

The new deployments will be partly offset by planned withdrawals by allies, with the Netherlands and Canada planning to pull out their combat forces of 2,100 and 2,800 troops in 2010 and 2011, respectively.

Flournoy said discussions were underway about the future roles of Canada and the Netherlands in the country. She did not rule out a future military role but appeared to suggest other options were also under discussion.

"We are still in dialogue with them about the nature of their contributions going forward. And we very much hope that they will continue to stay with us and find a way to continue to contribute to the mission," she said.

Asked whether this could involve some military role, she said: "I think all options are still on the table and discussion."

(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Eric Beech)