Eight officers will set off on Saturday to prepare for next month's handover from the current Dutch-German command of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul.

They will be led by Lieutenant General Goetz Gliemeroth, chief of NATO's Joint Command Centre at Heidelberg, Germany who is to assume the ISAF mandate for the 19-nation alliance on August 11.

"NATO's increased involvement demonstrates its continuing long-term commitment to stability and security in Afghanistan" through assistance to the interim government led by Hamid Karzai, an alliance statement said.

"This support, consisting of strategic command, control and coordination of ISAF will provide continuity in the operation," it said.

NATO decided in April to take command of ISAF, which will remain under a United Nations mandate and stay confined to Kabul.

The current 4,700-strong force was deployed at the end of 2001 after Afghanistan's Taliban regime succumbed to a US bombardment that followed the September 11 terrorist attacks.

It will be the first "out-of-area" mission -- meaning beyond its traditional European theatre of activities -- in NATO's 54-year history.

A separate US-led coalition force of some 11,500 troops is hunting down Taliban and al-Qaeda remnants in the south and east of Afghanistan.

WAR.WIRE