PORT OF SPAIN (Reuters) – Britain will host talks  on Afghanistan on Jan. 28, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown  said yesterday, just days before US President Barack Obama  sets out his expansion of the war effort next week.

The international conference in London, to be followed by a  meeting in Kabul, will address progressively handing security  to Afghan control, Brown and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon  said at a Common-wealth summit in Trinidad and Tobago.

That would, in theory, allow NATO countries to draw down  their forces as public support wanes on both sides of the  Atlantic for the costly eight-year-old war.

The London and Kabul talks will “outline the framework for  an increased lead role for the Afghans in the shaping of their  destiny,” Ban said.

Brown said he saw the need “to transfer at least five  Afghan provinces to lead Afghan control by the end of 2010.”

Despite talk of gradual troop cuts, the immediate focus for  the United States, Britain and their allies is how best to  fight a tenacious insurgency by Taliban and al Qaeda militants,  including calls for tens of thousands more soldiers.

Complicating the situation are the issues of Pakistan’s  efforts against the militants on its side of the border, Afghan  President Hamid Karzai’s ability to tackle corruption and the  geopolitical concerns of India, China, Iran and others.

Obama will address Americans in a prime-time televised  speech on Tuesday to explain why US soldiers need to be in  Afghanistan and the way toward an “endgame” in the conflict.

He is expected to announce he is sending about 30,000 more  US troops as part of a strategy to accelerate training of  Afghan security forces and press Karzai to improve governance  after his re-election in a fraud-tainted vote in August.