General James Jones said he expects a NATO summit Monday and Tuesday to meet its commitments to expand the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in the civil-war scarred country beyond the capital Kabul.

"We're hoping that as a result of the summit there will be commitments that will allow us to start the expansion. I'm cautiously optimistic about that," he added.

Asked when the expansion could begin, he said: "Probably within 30 days I think we would be moving forces. We'll have to wait and see what the commitments are.

"But I'd be surprised if by August we weren't really well into it," he told reporters accompanying him on an eve-of-summit visit to Afghanistan.

NATO took over ISAF last August, but has so far confined operations to Kabul and one so-called Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT), in the northern town of Kunduz.

Jones said he hopes for sufficient pledges in Istanbul to allow ISAF to take command of at least five PRTs in northern Afghanistan, generally considered to be the safest part of the country.

In addition to Kunduz, Jones said these would be at at Faizerbad, Mazar-i-Sharif, Baimana and in theory at Bamiam, near the giant statues of Buddha infamously destroyed by the Taliban before they fled US forces in 2002.

The NATO commander said he had asked for five C130 transport planes, a number of helicopters, medical facilities for Kabul, some quick response force companies and intelligence and reconnaissance units.

In addition on a temporary basis, for the period around the planned September elections, he has asked for a battalion -- about 800 men -- for about 90 days. All in all he said this amounted to "about 2,000" men including the election coverage.

Jones conceded he could not be certain of the ISAF pledges until the summit, set also to be dominated by Iraq operations, begins on Monday.

"It's a little bit like a lottery, I'm anxious to see if we won the lottery," he said.

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