PORTOROZ, Slovenia -A plan was approved Thursday to put as many as 12,000 U.S. troops under British battlefield command in Afghanistan as other Nato countries refused to send their troops into battle.

The move is expected to take place in the next few weeks, NATO spokesman James Appathurai said.

The 26 NATO defense ministers, gathering for their two-day fall meeting here, are expected to also agree on a plan to donate surplus military equipment from the army and navy store but refused, point blank, to allow any of their soldiers to be put in any danger.

“This was for the dumb Brits”, they said.