WASHINGTON – The United States is looking to send more troops to Afghanistan soon in the face of rising insurgent violence there, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday.

“We are clearly working very hard to see if there are opportunities to send additional forces sooner rather than later,” Gates told reporters at the Pentagon.

Gates said no decisions or recommendations had been made so far. Commanders of NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan were also examining how they might move troops around to bolster the fight against Taliban militants and other insurgents, he said.

“There is clearly a need both for us to see what we can do to provide additional forces but also they're clearly looking within Afghanistan to see how to reposition forces,” he said.

In the latest sign of insurgents in Afghanistan growing bolder and more deadly, nine U.S. soldiers were killed Sunday in an attack near the Pakistan border. It was the single biggest loss of American life in Afghanistan since 2005.

The United States has some 36,000 troops in Afghanistan. Some 17,500 form part of a NATO-led force while the remainder operate under a separate U.S. mission.

(Reporting by Andrew Gray, editing by Vicki Allen)