London, Dec 4 (IANS) Seven thousand more troops from 25 countries are to join the 30,000-strong US surge in Afghanistan, Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Friday.

This will take the total number of foreign troops in Afghanistan to around 140,000, Rasmussen said without disclosing how many of the contributing countries were members of the Nato.

Rasmussen said that a recent announcement by US President Barrack Obama giving July 2011 as the deadline for the US troops to start withdrawing did not signal a decision to quit Afghanistan.

'It will not be a run for the exit. It will be a well coordinated and well prepared transition to Afghan-led responsibility in provinces and districts where conditions so permit,' the Nato chief said in Brussels.