NATO ambassadors gave "provisional approval" Wednesday to the alliance's ambitious and potentially perilous plans to take command of security operations in southern Afghanistan, a spokesman said.
"Today the NAC (North Atlantic Council) gave provisional approval for the transfer of authority from forces in the south from the coalition to NATO," said spokesman James Appathurai.
The move has to be rubber-stamped by non-NATO nations taking part in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which is trying to extend the rule of President Hamid Karzai's weak central government to restive outlying regions.
The ambassadors are then expected to give final approval on Friday. NATO's top military officer, US General James Jones, can then formally transfer authority to ISAF from the US-led coalition force operating in the area.
"The date is not yet fixed, but we expect it to be at or around the 31st of July," the spokesman said.
The expansion would see forces double in the south and bring to more than 18,000 the total number of ISAF troops in Afghanistan, where Taliban fighters are waging an increasingly intense campaign against foreign military personnel.
The operation is NATO's most ambitious undertaking, eclipsing even its air campaign against Serbia in 1999 when then strongman Slobodan Milosevic tried to crush an ethnic Albanian uprising in Kosovo.
