The Agriculture and State departments plan to send hundreds of employees to Afghanistan by early 2010 to bolster the military surge and help stabilize the troubled country.

The State Department now has at least 627 diplomats, lawyers, agronomists, development specialists and other experts in Kabul and other areas around the country. Paul Jones, State's deputy special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said Dec. 7 at a Dec. 7 forum sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute that the department will have at least 1,000 employees on the ground by early 2010, and said more will follow. State employees will work with the military in provincial reconstruction teams and will set up new consulates in Mazar-e-Sharif and Heart.

And Agriculture will increase its presence from the 27 agricultural experts currently in Afghanistan to 64. Agriculture said 10 experts will be stationed in Kabul and 54 experts will be in the field teaching Afghan farmers new techniques and encouraging them to grow crops besides opium, which helps fund the insurgency.

The Defense Department now has 1,363 civilian employees in Afghanistan, but is not yet sure how many additional employees it will send as part of the civilian surge. The Defense, Commerce and Justice departments also are planning to send more employees, but could not yet say how many.

President Barack Obama on Dec. 1 said increasing the federal civilian presence in Afghanistan is one of the "core elements" of his surge policy.