U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday he will prod NATO allies this week for more economic and security aid to Afghanistan while trying to sidestep the simmering international debate over sending more troops to the fight.

Faced with dwindling public support for the 8-year-old war, NATO officials have signaled they won't ask their nations to send more troops until the Obama administration decides whether America will.

They won't get an answer from Gates, who was flying Thursday to a two-day NATO meeting in Bratislava, Slovakia, where the future of Afghanistan is at the top of the agenda of a meeting of the organization's defense ministers.

"There is ample for us to discuss going forward, completely independent of how many additional troops the president, and frankly other members of the alliance may decide to send," Gates said at a news conference in Seoul before leaving for Bratislava.

Gates said he hasn't fully decided if he agrees with a request from the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan to deploy as few as 10,000 and as many as 80,000 more American troops. And he said he won't reveal his own recommendation to NATO ministers before he shares it with President Barack Obama.

The U.S. already has about 68,000 troops in Afghanistan, and NATO nations have supplied 36,000 more.

Gates said he will focus on common ground among U.S. and NATO officials to bolster civilian missions in Afghanistan, such as training its security forces and developing its economy. Corruption in the nation's political and government systems also will be a key topic _ particularly with the Nov. 7 presidential runoff election on the horizon.

United Nations and other international officials are watching to see what assurances Afghan President Hamid Karzai will make to ensure his runoff against challenger Abdullah Abdullah is not marred by the widespread fraud charges that plagued the initial election in August.

Gates said that security forces that were sent to protect balloting in the Aug. 20 elections will remain through the runoff.

The disputed election is key to Obama's decision on a war plan. Both White House and NATO officials are balking at ordering more troops and other resources to Afghanistan until the political crisis there is resolved.

Obama is mulling whether to order more forces to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan or to focus more narrowly on al-Qaida terrorists believed to be hiding in Pakistan.

Conservative Republicans in Washington have stepped up their criticism of Obama's failure to make a decision on troops. Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Wednesday that the White House was dithering over the strategy for the war in Afghanistan and urged Obama to "do what it takes to win."