The Netherlands has been asked to host an international conference on Afghanistan at the end of this month. Foreign minister Maxime Verhagen, speaking at the Nato summit in Brussels, said he will respond to the request as quickly as possible.
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton called for the high-level conference, as Washington winds up a review of how to combat the Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan.
"The United States proposes a ministerial-level conference on Afghanistan and the broader regional challenge on March 31," Clinton told Nato foreign ministers in Brussels.
"We are in the process of discussing with the UN the possibility that UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon could open the conference and that his special representative for Afghanistan Kai Eide could chair the meeting."
She did not say where the meeting would be held, but only that Afghan and Pakistani officials would be invited, with Nato allies, donors, international organisations and "key regional and strategic" nations.
"I would expect that Iran would be invited," said state department spokesman Robert Wood.
Nato secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer described the conference as a giant meeting and said the allies had responded with enthusiasm. "I felt a lot of appetite for a big tent meeting," he told reporters after the talks.
The United States and its Nato allies are battling to halt an insurgency that has severely dented their efforts to spread democracy and foster reconstruction throughout Afghanistan.
President Barack Obama has demanded a strategy review focused on fighting extremism in the strife-torn country, where he is deploying 17,000 extra troops, and in neighbouring Pakistan as he winds down US involvement in Iraq.
Clinton urged US allies to make greater efforts, ahead of Afghanistan's presidential elections on August 20 which could prove a litmus test of Nato's efforts there.
"We have a common threat. A common challenge. And a common responsibility," she said.
"We must add resources to address the serious situation on the ground right now. President Obama has committed 17,000 more troops, and we appreciate that some countries are giving more."
The Netherlands too have received a Nato request to send extra troops to Afghanistan to oversee the elections, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday. The Netherlands currently has around 1,650 soldiers in Afghanistan as part of the ISAF mission.
