Afghan police have made significant progress through effective training and they are on track to taker over the responsibility of safeguarding their own country, a NATO commander said on Thursday.

In terms of strength, the Afghan police force numbers have risen from 95,000 to nearly 120,000 in less than 12 months, Maj. Gen. Stuart Beare, deputy commanding general for police at NATO Training Mission Afghanistan, said when briefing Pentagon reporters via teleconference from the Afghan capital Kabul.

"We're on track to growing the forces entirely to 134,000 by this time next year," he added.

Beare stressed that the challenge of growing and " professionalizing" the Afghan police force depends on the effectiveness of ongoing anti-corruption efforts in Afghanistan.

He also acknowledged that in spite of its rapid progress, the Afghan police force is not yet ready to take charge.

"They're counting on us to continue to assist them in their development at the ministerial level [and] to assist them in the creation of their institutional systems that connect that ministry to its operational police forces," Beare said.

The Obama administration decided last December to send an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan, and to begin pulling out of that country by July 2011, leaving the Afghan security forces to take over the burden of maintaining security in the country.

However, many doubted the timetable Obama set for withdrawing troops from Afghanistan as the current counterinsurgency campaign shows little signs of accomplishing its mission. The security situation in the country has not fundamentally improved, as demonstrated by continuous attacks by the Taliban and terrorist organizations including al-Qaeda.