KABUL, Feb 13: Turkey took command on Sunday of the Nato-led peacekeeping force in Afghanistan for a six-month stretch which will see the force expanding to the west of the country and overseeing security preparations for upcoming parliamentary polls.

Turkish General Ethem Erdagi took over leadership of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) from French General Jean-Louis Py who heads Euro corps. Under Py, ISAF, which has been under Nato command since August 2003, provided security in Kabul and nine northern provinces for Afghanistan's first presidential election in October.

Erdagi, 56, is commander of the Nato Rapid Deployment Corps based in Istanbul, and will now head the force of more than 8,000 soldiers from 37 countries including 1,700 Turkish troops as the force expands westward and prepares security for parliamentary polls.

"I am very honoured to take command of ISAF," Erdagi said at a ceremony earlier on Sunday. Under his command, the Nato-led force will expand into the remote west of the country after an accord signed last week in France by Nato's political leaders.

Italy, Spain and Lithuania - the latter among seven ex-Soviet bloc states which joined Nato last year - are to take command of four Provincial Reconstruction Teams and a forward operating base in the city of Herat.

The expansion will roughly double the territory covered by ISAF, from some 25 percent of Afghanistan to 50 percent of the country, many parts of which are mountainous and remote.

However, it is still unclear when parliamentary elections, which were originally set to be held ahead of May 20, will be scheduled. Nato officials on Sunday urged the Afghan government to set a date for the polls and said that if action was not taken swiftly they could be pushed back until September.

Speaking at the ceremony to mark the change of command, a NATO official warned that if elections were not held by the first week in July, troop deployments would leave the force unable to ensure security for polls over the summer.

"We made it very clear to the Afghan authorities... that the latest time is the first week of July," Hikmet Cetin, NATO senior civilian representative for Afghanistan, said. Command of the multinational force will change again in August rendering it impossible for ISAF to coordinate security for polls during the summer months. -AFP