WASHINGTON — U.S. troop deaths in Afghanistan are approximating those in Iraq, reflecting a shifting balance in the two wars the United States is fighting.
Iraq has grown more stable as violence in Afghanistan increased, prompting a renewed look at whether the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan should grow as forces draw down in Iraq.

"At what point do U.S. combat forces, and in particular the Marine Corps, shift from what is a dramatically improved security situation in Iraq to one that needs to be dramatically improved in Afghanistan?" Gen. Robert Magnus, assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, said recently in an interview at the Pentagon.

At least 45 international troops — including at least 27 U.S. and 13 British servicemembers — died in Afghanistan in June, the deadliest month since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, according to an Associated Press count.

In Iraq, at least 31 international troops died in June, including 29 Americans, according to the AP.

President Bush, who will leave office in January, has pledged a further increase in U.S. forces next year. (??? )

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said the U.S. role in Afghanistan has broad political support, and he expects the next administration would follow through on the pledge.

Any increase in U.S. forces would have to be gradual as they remain stretched.

The Army has pledged to reduce the length of combat tours and increase the amount of downtime between combat deployments as troop levels in Iraq decline.

Unlike Iraq, the war in Afghanistan is primarily a NATO mission. The U.S. government has urged its allies to provide more forces for Afghanistan but has had limited success.

About half of the almost 60,000 international troops in Afghanistan are American. There are 144,000 U.S. and 4,000 British troops in Iraq.

Enemy attacks in Afghanistan have increased every year since 2002, said Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Schloesser, commander of Combined Joint Task Force-82 in Afghanistan.

In Iraq, attacks are at their lowest since March 2004, according to Multi-National Corps-Iraq.

Part of the rise in violence in Afghanistan reflects an increase in NATO troops over recent years and a more aggressive strategy to rout the enemy in remote parts of the country.

There are also signs that the fundamentalist Muslim Taliban has partly recovered since 2001, when U.S. and allied troops toppled them from power.