David Sedney told a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee that in the past 11 months, the United States has shipped almost 5,000 containers to its troops along the Central Asian railway route, which runs across Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

"We will expand this number (of containers) in 2010 to meet the new demand" that will be created by President Obama’s decision to send 30,000 more US troops to Afghanistan, Sedney said.

The supply route, known as the Northern Distribution Network, is helping complement heavily burdened supply lines that run through Pakistan to US troops in Afghanistan, Sedney said.

In addition to the Northern Distribution Network on the ground, the Defense Department conducts military overflights of most countries in Central Asia, Sedney said.

Not all of the ground cargo that goes through Pakistan gets to US troops, but the cargo moved through the newer Central Asian route arrives all the time. The cargo includes wood, nails and plastic sheeting for US forces.

Bottlenecks are created in Afghanistan because it has no railroads, Sedney said. When the rail cargo arrives there, it has to be loaded onto trucks. A new railroad planned for Afghanistan with the help of the Asian Development Bank will help remedy this, Sedney said.