Obama urged to act swiftly on Afghan crisis

US: The incoming Barack Obama administration will inherit an urgent crisis in Afghanis-tan and must increase U.S. and NATO troop levels there while enlarging the Afghan army, a U.S. think tank recommended on Thursday.

The security measures must be matched by efforts to build the rule of law and achieve sustained economic development in Afghanistan, and to boost security in neighboring Pakistan, the Washington-based Brookings Institution said.

The "memo to the president" by Brookings security expert Vanda Felbab-Brown painted a bleak picture of a growing Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, an al Qaeda stronghold in that country's mountainous border with Pakistan and of troubling Pakistani political and economic weakness.

"A complete state failure in Pakistan would generate a grave and severe crisis, as would any serious military confrontation between India and Pakistan," said the memo.

WASHINGTON, Friday, Reuters