Washington  - The United States is considering sending dozens more civilians to Afghanistan along with thousands of additional troops set to arrive later this year, a spokesman said Thursday.

The US is looking at adding 51 civilian posts to work on various projects and could also send more diplomats to beef up local reconstruction teams, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said.

President Barack Obama will soon announce a revised strategy for the conflict in Afghanistan, ahead of his trip to Europe next month for a NATO summit in France and Germany. There will also be a March 31 international conference on Afghanistan in The Hague that will be attended by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

"As President Obama has said, we need to ramp up our engagement in Afghanistan," Wood said. "And one of the things that we're looking at, at this moment, is trying to increase the number of civilians."

Obama is expected to funnel more resources into Afghanistan, which he has identified as a priority, and wind down the US role in Iraq. The security situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated sharply in the last two years as a resurgent Taliban steps up attacks on US and NATO forces.

Obama will reportedly also endorse a renewed effort to build Afghan security forces. Obama's senior advisors are offering a new strategy that proposes a more narrowly focused concentration on security, improving governance and combating narcotics.

Obama has already ordered an increase of 17,000 soldiers in Afghanistan this year and the number could climb.

Meanwhile, Wood said a US official will attend a meeting in Moscow next month on the growing security threat in Central Asia emanating from the conflict in Afghanistan.

Patrick Moon, an expert on South and Central Asian affairs, will attend the March 27 meeting after receiving an invitation from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a group of nations comprising China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Iran has observer status with the SCO and could also attend the meeting. Wood said there are no plans for Moon to meet his Iranian counterparts but did not rule out the possibility.

"It's not unusual for US and Iranian officials to, you know, cross paths during a multilateral meeting. So I'm not going to rule anything in or rule anything out," Wood said.

The United States and Iran do not have formal diplomatic relations but had low-level contact in the early phase of the war in Afghanistan. Obama has said he is open to engaging Iran at a higher level. dpa