WASHINGTON — A new Army program in which the National Guard helps recruit for the active duty Army has brought more than 500 sign-ups in its first three months, officials said Thursday.

The results surpass Army expectations, which were that 1,600 would be brought in during the one-year pilot program launched Oct. 1, said National Guard spokeswoman Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke.

The Defense Department also announced that all services met or exceeded their recruiting goals in December.

Army Secretary Pete Geren said while recruiting is a challenge, he expects the service to meet its target for the year.

During the entire time the country has been at war "young men and women have been willing to step up, raise their right hand and join the Army, knowing full well ... that they're going to go to combat," Geren said at a news conference on the National Guard recruiting program.

Called Active First, the program provides extra bonuses to National Guard recruiters who bring recruits into the active duty Army. The recruits join the Guard but indicate that they are intending to shift to active duty.

After they finish basic training they can either sign up for 30, 36 or 48 months in the active Army, or change their mind and simply stay in the Guard. Recruits can get bonuses of as much as $40,000, $30,000 or $20,000 for the 48-, 36- or 30-month sign-ups, respectively, and then get an additional $20,000 bonus when they eventually shift back to the Guard.

As of Jan. 4, Guard recruiters had brought in 506 soldiers in the Active First program.

Lt. Gen. Clyde A. Vaughn, director of the Army National Guard, said 60 percent of them were referred to the service by a friend or acquaintance already in the service, as opposed to a professional recruiter, under another bonus program for referrals.

The Army has been under growing pressure to strengthen recruiting, due largely to the ongoing effort to boost the size of the Army.

Plans are to increase the number of the active-duty Army, Army Guard and Army Reserve by 74,000 overall, with the active-duty force growing by 65,000 to a total of 547,000. In October, top Army leaders said they planned to move faster to increase the size of the force — adding the full 74,000 soldiers by 2010, two years sooner than originally planned.