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Australia mulls Afghan troop plea
 Australian special forces served in Afghanistan in 2001-02. RELATED
SPECIAL REPORTSYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- Australia will decide next week whether it will again send troops to Afghanistan, Prime Minister John Howard has said. Australia was one of the first countries to commit forces to Afghanistan as part of the U.S.-led action against the al Qaeda terrorist group and their Taliban hosts in 2001. All told, 1,550 Australian defense personnel were sent, including air force and navy units. The main fighting commitment was a group of 150 elite Special Air Services soldiers. But Australia withdrew its special forces troops from Afghanistan in 2002 after they completed their mission there. Howard, a close ally of U.S. President George W. Bush, has since sent other troops, aircraft and ships to the Middle East to take part in the Iraq operation. A deteriorating security environment in Afghanistan has led both the administration of President Hamid Karzai and NATO commanders to press Australia to contribute troops again. NATO commands the 8,000-strong international force now in Afghanistan. Taliban and al Qaeda forces have stepped up attacks in recent days, particularly in the south and along Afghanistan's border with Pakistan. In a recent incident, a U.S. helicopter going to the aid of a U.S. reconnaissance team crashed on June 28, with the loss of 16 lives. As well, two members of the four-man team were killed and another is missing. Howard, who is due to meet Bush in Washington on July 16, told Australian radio on Thursday that the cabinet would make a decision on the troop commitment next week. "There's been a standing request from the government of Afghanistan over quite a period of time to a lot of countries including Australia to send troops," he told Southern Cross Broadcasting. Defense analysts say Australia once again has the capacity to send troops to Afghanistan, following the winding down of its peace-keeping commitments in East Timor and the Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said at the weekend that the government received a "steady stream of requests" on troops for Afghanistan. He said the government was looking at it, but stressed that no decision had yet been made. "This is something we'll be having a look at over the next few weeks, and we'll make a decision one way or the other then," he said. 
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