(live-PR.com) - AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - The Netherlands may send extra soldiers on temporary duty to Afghanistan to reinforce its troops in the southern district of Uruzgan, the defense chief said Monday.
The Dutch had asked NATO for reinforcements in Uruzgan, but were unlikely to get them, and would likely have to fill the gap on its own, Gen. Dick Berlijn said.
More troops were needed in the Deh Rawod district, where a Dutch soldier was killed in combat last week, he said. The soldier, whose body was being flown home Monday, was the 11th fatality since the Netherlands dispatched troops to the area in August 2006.
The national broadcaster NOS put the number of extra troops to be sent at 80.
The Dutch have kept about 1,200 soldiers in the restive province since last year, and the government was expected to decide next month whether to extend its two-year commitment.
Berlijn told reporters in The Hague that the security situation in Afghanistan had worsened. The Taliban is better trained and has grown more professional, he said.
Foreign fighters had joined their ranks, but he declined to say from which countries.

In an appeal for continued support, Afghan President Hamid Karzai told Dutch reporters at the United Nations that the Netherlands had been «at the forefront of assistance» to his government, providing direct aid to Kabul as well as contributing troops to the NATO mission.
«We would very much want the Netherlands to remain committed to Afghanistan,» he said.