LONDON - Britain will carefully examine any request from the incoming U.S. administration to send more troops to Afghanistan, Foreign Secretary David Miliband said in an interview published Friday.
The U.K. government had previously said it should first be up to other allies to provide additional personnel as NATO seeks to increase its forces in Afghanistan.
But Miliband and Defence Secretary John Hutton said separately that Britain -- which boosted its force in Afghanistan in June -- could be prepared to offer more troops.
Britain contributes around 8,000 troops to a 50,000-strong NATO mission and is the second largest military presence in the country after the United States.
"If there are requests for help, we'll look at them hard," Miliband told the Daily Telegraph. "We have never been in blanket refusal."
Britain's defence ministry said Miliband's comments were not a guarantee that the U.K. will in future send more troops, but acknowledged that the option will be looked at, if a request is made.
"We're not ruling anything in, but we're not ruling anything out," a defence ministry spokeswoman said on condition of anonymity in line with policy.
Earlier this month, the ministry denied a British Broadcasting Corp. report that claimed U.K. officials expect U.S. president-elect Barack Obama to request that Britain send an additional 2,000 troops to Afghanistan.
Since 2001, 128 British personnel have died in Afghanistan, mostly in clashes in the restive southern province of Helmand.
Military commanders have warned that British troops are overstretched from commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sir Jock Stirrup, head of Britain's armed forces, said this month that a likely major withdrawal of Britain's 4,000 troops in Iraq in 2009 won't mean additional forces can immediately be sent to Afghanistan.
Obama's team is working on plans to add troops in Afghanistan. Canada, Italy and France each contribute around 2,500 troops to the NATO mission, and the Netherlands 1,700. Poland has sent around 1,000 and Spain 800 troops. Dozens of other countries provide smaller numbers.
In a speech in Berlin on Thursday, Hutton said richer NATO countries must be prepared to take on a greater role. "The most prosperous members of the alliance are the ones that should and can shoulder the burden," Hutton said.
Hutton and Miliband were meeting Friday with their counterparts from Australia, which has around 1,000 troops in Afghanistan.
