Brussels - US Vice President Joe Biden was Tuesday holding talks in Brussels with the chief of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and with European ambassadors to NATO on how to step up the alliance's efforts in Afghanistan.

The talks come just five days after US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited the NATO headquarters, suggesting the new US administration was keen to re-engage with its European allies as it struggles to defeat the Taliban insurgency.

US President Barack Obama has announced the deployment of an additional 17,000 soldiers to Afghanistan, and the US administration has made it clear that it wants allies to increase their commitment to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

At the same time, Washington has moved to allay the concerns of those Europeans that are reluctant to send more troops to combat zones by suggesting that further efforts on the civilian side would be equally welcomed.

Other likely topics for discussion in Brussels concern the increasingly unstable situation in Pakistan and possible talks by international forces with moderate Taliban in Afghanistan, diplomats said.

Tuesday's visit comes less than a month before NATO is due to hold its summit in Strasbourg and in the German town of Kehl.

Biden was later due to meet European Union officials. (dpa)