premise: Britain is pulling together a coalition to fight the Taliban and al-Qaida insurgency in southern Afghanistan after next year's partial US pullback, the Guardian newspaper said on Tuesday.
  Britain is set to take over NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan in early 2006, when the United States plans to withdraw 4,000 soldiers from a parallel force fighting the rebels.
  Talks to create a counter-rebel force were allegedly taking place with several countries, including Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
  British Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram said on Monday that elite paratroopers were already training for possible operations in Afghanistan's lawless Helmand province.
  As many as 2,000 more British troops are expected to be sent to Afghanistan next year to increase the UK's forces in the war-torn country to almost 5,000, said the report.
   Why is Britain set to take over NATO's ISAF?
hypothesis: the United States plans to withdraw 4,000 soldiers