Afghanistan asking for extension of training mission, says McCully

"The US has already announced that they're going to slow down the withdrawal of troops a little to try and maintain numbers."

New Zealand could further extend its mission training security forces in Afghanistan beyond next year after the United States announced it was delaying the planned withdrawal of 1000 troops from Afghanistan this year because of a shortfall in troops from other countries.

Foreign Minister Murray McCully has just returned from a Nato meeting in Brussels where Foreign Ministers heard from Afghanistan's new leaders, President Ashraf Ghani and chief executive Abdullah Abdullah. Mr McCully said that meeting included "a reasonably solid pitch" for countries already involved in Afghanistan to stay there.

"The US has already announced that they're going to slow down the withdrawal of troops a little to try and maintain numbers. They're looking to try and make sure they've got a reasonable level of military presence at the same time as trying to take forward capacity building work of the incoming Ghani Government.

"The big challenge of course is that they're heavily dependent on aid donors so there was a reasonably solid pitch at the meeting both for countries to maintain their military support but also for development contributions to balance the Government's budget."

Mr McCully said while there was no specific request to New Zealand, the Cabinet would likely consider early next year whether to continue to take part in the British-led training base in Afghanistan after its current mission ended in March or April.

"Whether the training component is something that they want or need to maintain at the current capacity is something we will get specific advice on."

Yesterday on a visit to Kabul, US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel announced the US was delaying plans to reduce troop numbers by 1000 to 9800 by the end of the year. Hagel said that was a temporary hold to allow time for US Nato allies to provide the required troops to take up training and advisory roles with the Afghanistan Security Forces.

Mr McCully said New Zealanders, predominantly civilians, were still involved with reconstruction work in Bamiyan province, although the Provincial Reconstruction Team had withdrawn. "So we would argue we are doing our bit."

Mr McCully also attended a meeting, led by US Secretary of State John Kerry, on the developing response to Islamic State in Iraq. New Zealand is weighing up an Australian-led effort for non-combat training work in Iraq.

"It will be some time next year before we know quite what that's going to look like and make any decisions."