WASHINGTON: A US general said on Monday that Afghan forces will not be ready to take over security duties from NATO-led troops for at least another year, three months after a scheduled start of a US withdrawal.

The United States and its NATO allies view building up the Afghan army and police as crucial to paving the way for an eventual withdrawal of foreign troops.

But the US officer in charge of training the Afghan army and police, Lieutenant General Bill Caldwell, said the Afghans could not be expected to assume a major security role before October 31, 2011, when NATO hopes the security force will reach the target level of 305,000.

His comments reinforced recent signals from US officials downplaying the prospects of a significant US withdrawal after July 2011, a deadline set by President Barack Obama for the start of a troop drawdown.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has also suggested the troop reduction would be modest, but he has also held out the possibility of Afghan troops taking over security in some districts by the end of the year.

Caldwell told reporters by video link from Kabul that the Afghan security forces were unlikely to take on any major role before October 2011, as a new army and police was still being trained and organized.

He said it was possible that some Afghan units could take a leading role in some "isolated pockets" with logistical and other backing from the NATO-led coalition.

"So if somebody says, when will the security force have the lead in a particular area, we will not have finished building the entire army until October of next year.

"It doesn`t mean, in small isolated pockets that they can`t have the lead with coalition enablers supporting them, but to say that they`ll be able to do much more before October of next year would be stretching it, only because we haven`t finished the development of their force."

The general said recruitment was ahead of schedule but the effort to expand and improve the security forces was hampered by high rates of attrition as well as low literacy levels, with more than 80 percent of soldiers unable to read.

"If a soldier cannot read, how can he know what equipment he is supposed to have and to maintain? If a policeman does not know his numbers, how can he read and understand the serial number on his own weapon?" he said.

Since taking over in November 2009, Caldwell has ordered mandatory literacy courses for recruits, with the goal of enabling soldiers and police to learn basic skills -- akin to early elementary school -- such as writing their name and recognizing a series of numbers.

Caldwell said attrition, which includes desertions, deaths and soldiers choosing not to re-enlist, represented an "endemic enemy" that posed the greatest threat to building up a viable Afghan force.

From March 2009 to March 2010, the attrition rate was about 23 percent for the Afghan army and 16 percent for the Afghan national police, he said.

To try to retain recruits, NATO and the Afghan government have been working to ensure troops are paid promptly, given predictable deployment schedules and reliable transport for leave, he said.

He added that it was possible some Afghans who deserted were being hired away by private security companies, as recently trained recruits were a valuable labor force.

The general, who took over the training mission in November 2009, said the Afghan military had ample infantry but lacked support units with expertise in logistics, equipment maintenance, transportation and intelligence.

The NATO training mission was now helping the Afghan military create these support elements, or "enablers," he said.

BDST: 1016 HRS, August 24, 2010