WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday he’s inclined to approve an Army proposal to spend nearly $3 billion extra to accelerate the expansion of its active-duty force.

“I’m probably going to recommend they go ahead and give it a try,” Gates said. The defense secretary cautioned that he would not accept any sped-up expansion of the Army that would lead the Army to lower its recruiting standards, including levels of education required.

“My questions have focused principally on whether they can do it, in terms of recruitment and whether they can do so without lowering standards and, in fact, to begin to move back toward the high standards of not too many months ago.”

Gates mentioned, as an example, that the percentage of Army recruits with a high school diploma has dropped to about 76 percent, compared with over 90 percent in recent years. “We’d like to see that get back up,” he said.

Army Secretary Pete Geren said speeding up the growth of the force, stretched thin by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, would mean recruiting faster and increasing the number of soldiers who re-enlist.

In January, when Bush announced his intention to send five extra combat brigades to Iraq in a change of war strategy, he approved a plan to increase the size of the active-duty Army by 74,000 soldiers over five years — from 512,000 to 586,000 soldiers. The rationale was that the Army needs to get bigger in order to sustain a long-term commitment in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Marine Corps is expanding for the same reason.