"This increase is necessary to stabilize a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, which has not received the strategic attention, direction and resources it urgently requires," he said.

Obama said the deployment orders were in response to a months-old request by the US commander in Afghanistan, General David McKiernan, who had asked for 30,000 more troops.

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He said that "to meet urgent security needs" he had approved a request by US Defense Secretary Robert Gates to deploy a Marine Expeditionary Brigade in the spring and an Army Stryker Brigade and support forces later this summer.

"The Taliban is resurgent in Afghanistan, and Al Qaeda supports the insurgency and threatens America from its safe-haven along the Pakistani border," he said.