Top NATO officials suggested Friday that they support Afghanistan commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal's call for a bigger counterinsurgency strategy in that war, but said they may send more troops only after they know how the administration intends to proceed there.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates traveled to Bratislava, Slovakia, to meet with the defense ministers of 28 NATO nations, which provide troops and economic aid to Afghanistan.

There, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said there was "broad support" for the strategy outlined by McChrystal to the Obama administration in September. But NATO stopped short of committing more forces. McChrystal has called for as many as 80,000 additional troops.