NATO says the deployment of 1,400 U.S. Marines to Afghanistan announced by Washington early this month would begin within weeks.

The spokesman of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (SAF) Josef Blotz today said at a press conference that the marines are are expected to arrive in the next few weeks to operate in Afghanistan. He said the fresh troops would be deployed in the troubled Helmand province.

Pentagon chief Robert Gates had announced deployment of additional 1,400 U.S. Marines to Afghanistan early this month to bolster the already some 140,000-strong NATO-led troops stationed in the militancy-plagued country.