Afghanistan's fledgling national army trained by US-led coalition forces has reached 19,000 members, the US military said Tuesday. About 3,400 soldiers are due to join the national army over next few months, the US military said in a statement. The new recruits will be posted at regional corps in northern Mazar-i-Sharif, southern Kandahar, western Herat and Paktia in the east.

The multi-ethnic force is meant to extend the writ of the central government beyond Kabul and replace tens of thousands of private anti-Taleban militias who helped the US to topple the hard-line regime.

The first steps to raise an estimated 70,000-strong Afghan army were initiated in mid-2002 after the toppling of the Taliban regime by the US-led forces in late 2001.

The United States, which has some 18,000 troops in Afghanistan in addition to 8,000 Nato troops, has previously said it wanted the force to be raised by 2006. Reining in powerful warlords and disarming some 100,000 militiamen are among the major challenges facing President Hamid Karzai as he attempts to extend his authority to the provinces.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2005