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Obama to ask Australia for more troops

WASHINGTON, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama is to ask Kevin Rudd to send more troops to Afghanistan when the Australian prime minister visits Washington, authorities said.

Their meeting Monday is to focus on "a range of issues, including Afghanistan and climate change in the run-up to Copenhagen," The White House said in a release Friday, referring to the 8-year-old war and the United Nations environmental conference to be held in Denmark next month.

Rudd is expected to be asked whether Australia can commit to more than the 450 additional troops he pledged in April to send to Afghanistan, Obama administration officials told The Washington Post in a story published Saturday. The 450 troops would bring the Australian deployment in Afghanistan to more than 1,500 soldiers.

Obama is to announce his strategy for Afghanistan during a nationally televised speech Tuesday at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Overall, about 68,000 U.S. troops are in Afghanistan, with Obama considering sending between 30,000 and 40,000 additional U.S. troops bolstered with 5,000 to 10,000 more soldiers from NATO countries.

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Afghan elders enlisted to sway Taliban

JALALABAD, Afghanistan, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- New U.S. efforts to persuade rank-and-file Taliban fighters to switch sides have begun in Afghanistan with a meeting of tribal leaders, observers say.

Leaders of 25 Afghan tribes met recently in an ornate palace in Jalalabad, where one-time warlord Gul Agha Shirzai urged tribal elders to work on converting Taliban fighters to support the government of President Hamid Karzai with promises of U.S.-backed development projects, The New York Times reported Saturday.

Shirzai, who was once picked by U.S. military commanders to be the governor of restive Kandahar province -- now considered the heartland of the Taliban insurgency -- told the elders, "O.K., I want you guys to go out there and persuade the Taliban to sit down and talk. Do whatever you have to do. I'll back you up."

The Times said the U.S. efforts calls for tribal elders to pick what development projects they want, thus giving them a stake in Karzai's shaky government and perhaps persuading them to switch sides. The newspaper said efforts on that front have so far produced few results, with only about 9,000 insurgents so far turning in their weapons and agreeing to abide by the Afghan Constitution.

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Ban: Climate change treaty achievable

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- A new world climate change treaty is within reach and participants should do what they can to make it happen, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says.

Speaking Friday at a meeting of the British Commonwealth nations in Trinidad and Tobago, Ban urged the world's nations to "seal the deal" on a climate change treaty next month in Copenhagen, the BBC reported.

"Our common goal is to achieve a firm foundation for a legally binding climate treaty as early as possible in 2010," Ban said, while Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen added that he hoped to see "money on the table" at the Dec. 7-18 Copenhagen global warming summit.

Ban's speech was unorthodox because it marked one of first times a speaker from outside the 53-member Commonwealth was scheduled to address the conference on its first day, the British broadcaster said.

Ban, Rasmussen and French President Nicolas Sarkozy all took advantage of the opportunity to speak about climate change at what was one of the last major political gatherings ahead of the Copenhagen summit.

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Nader urged to mount run against Dodd

WEST HARTFORD, Conn., Nov. 28 (UPI) -- Connecticut Green Party members say they're urging Ralph Nader to run against Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., in next year's election.

The party's Tim McKee says Nader, a three-time presidential candidate, has the experience to mount a credible campaign against Dodd, but Nader himself says he is non-committal, The (Hartford, Conn.) Courant reported Saturday.

"It's premature," Nader told the newspaper at a West Hartford, Conn., book-signing. "I've been getting an increasing number of requests to do so. This is my home state and I'm just absorbing a lot of the feedback before I make a decision."

"If enough people, hundreds and hundreds of people urge Ralph Nader to run, get involved directly in this race, it's going to be something very exciting to have an independent person not associated with the two big parties being a U.S. senator and it'll do a lot of good for our state," McKee said.

Nader told The Courant he is cautious, not because he sees Dodd as a formidable opponent, but because the Senate is in gridlock and unable to pass important legislation.

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Supporters start 'Draft Cheney' bid

WASHINGTON, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- Supporters of former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney say they have begun efforts to draft the Republican for a 2012 presidential run.

Christopher Barron, a campaign consultant and lawyer based in Washington, told Saturday's Chicago Tribune that Cheney is the only GOP figure "with the experience, political courage and unwavering commitment to the values that made our party strong."

Barron, whom the Tribune says served as the national political director for the Log Cabin Republicans, a national gay and lesbian GOP group, now heads Draft Cheney 2012 and told the newspaper he is working on building "grass-roots support" for a Cheney campaign.

"The 2012 race for the Republican nomination for president will be about much more than who will be the party's standard-bearer against Barack Obama," he said. "The race is about the heart and soul of the GOP."

Cheney, who is 68 and has suffered several heart attacks, has been an outspoken critic of Obama since leaving office, most recently accusing him of "dithering" on whether to send more troops to Afghanistan.