Hluboka Castle, Czech Republic  - EU foreign ministers were set to meet Friday in a 13th century castle in the Czech Republic to discuss ways of helping the United States defeat the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.

The EU talks were to take place amid reports that US President Barack Obama was planning to send thousands of additional army trainers to the country in a bid to loosen its dependance on Western help.

Obama has already announced a military surge of 17,000 extra soldiers, and Friday's meeting of EU diplomats was partly designed to discuss three upcoming meetings with Obama - a Group of 20 (G20) meeting in London, a NATO summit in Strasbourg and an EU-US summit in Prague.

The European Union has had its own civilian mission in Afghanistan - EUPOL Afghanistan - since 2007. But it currently consists of just 177 police trainers.

Designed to help the country establish an effective police force, the mission should grow to 400 over the coming months.

EU nations are also contributing thousands of soldiers to NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) mission in Afghanistan.

EU ministers also planned to discuss the latest developments in the Middle East, and whether to invite Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko to a May 7 summit in Prague.

That meeting will officially launch the EU's Eastern Partnership, an initiative designed to boost the bloc's ties with its Eastern neighbours.

Ministers paved the way for a possible invitation to Lukashenko earlier this month, when they agreed to keep a visa ban on the country's top officials on ice for nine more months.

EU countries are currently torn between maintaining a tough line against what is frequently described as "Europe's last dictatorship," or welcoming it with open arms in a bid to woo it away from Russian influence.

The two-day talks in the Czech Republic are being held in Hluboka Castle, an imposing hill-top white structure that was once the family home of the meeting's host, Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg.

Schwarzenberg's future was in serious doubt Friday after his government collapsed in the middle of its tenure as EU president.

Talks on the formation of a new government were currently underway in Prague. (dpa)