An Afghan resident stands inside a damaged house following a NATO airstrike at a house in Kabul on September 28, 2017 | Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images Trump wants 1,000 soldiers from NATO allies for Afghanistan Allies had agreed on a goal of increasing forces by about 4,000.

The U.S. asked NATO allies to deploy an additional 1,000 troops to help fight the Taliban in Afghanistan, the new U.S. ambassador to the alliance said Thursday.

“The general number has been 3,000 or so U.S. troops and 1,000 or so allied troops, that's out there as a kind of benchmark,” the ambassador, Kay Bailey Hutchison, told reporters at a briefing in NATO headquarters in Brussels.

The goal, Hutchison added, “is for very quickly, in the next two weeks or so” to put forward specific requests.

“We have been more specific in our asks,” she said, adding “we are going to be much more efficient by asking people for specific expertise areas: So we're not just saying we want 50 more troops from Denmark, we're saying we want 50 more troops with technology or capability to fix machines or run tanks."

The effort to adjust the number of troops in Afghanistan started last spring when NATO allies agreed on a goal of increasing forces by about 4,000 as part of the “combined joint statement of requirements” — essentially a declaration by the allies of the optimal force level.

Since then, the U.S. has pledged an additional 3,000 soldiers, with the hope that allies will fill the remaining gap of 1,000.

The precise number of allied troops in Afghanistan is unknown. The U.S. had officially reported having about 8,500 troops deployed there, but the Wall Street Journal reported in August that an additional 3,500 U.S. troops rotate in and out, technically on temporary assignment. NATO allies have roughly 4,000 troops already stationed in Afghanistan.

While the process has been underway for months, Hutchison’s comments were the first public disclosure of NATO’s plan to increase the force level in Afghanistan, and her remarks seemed to catch some officials at the alliance headquarters by surprise.

“NATO has committed to increasing our presence in Afghanistan,” a NATO official said. “At least 15 nations have already pledged further contributions to the Resolute Support mission.”

The official noted that NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg had spoken about the plans for additional troops during a visit to Afghanistan with Hutchison and U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis last week. In a press conference in Kabul, the former Norwegian prime minister said: "I very much welcome that many nations have pledged further contributions to our mission here in Afghanistan, including more troops from the United States. And I welcome President [Donald] Trump’s new, conditions-based approach to Afghanistan and the region."

The NATO official said there would be additional clarity next month. “The force generation process continues,” the official said. “We will take stock of our progress at a force generation conference later this month, and at a meeting of NATO defense ministers in November.”