U.S. asks European allies to do more in Afghanistan

KRAKOW, Poland, Feb. 19 -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday asked NATO's European allies to do more in Afghanistan to balance new U.S. pledges to send in 17,000 additional troops.

Gates and his counterparts in NATO countries were holding informal discussions on Afghanistan on Thursday.

"Secretary Gates made a point ... that this (additional U.S. troops for Afghanistan) should not be seen as only a U.S. extra effort, that this extra effort needs to be balanced by all the allies," NATO spokesman James Appathurai told reporters.

All allies shared the view that everybody needs to do more, said Appathurai, without pronouncing any specific pledges by other allies. He said apart from military support, allies can also make civilian contributions to NATO's operations in Afghanistan.

European allies are under pressure to send more troops to Afghanistan after U.S. President Barack Obama announced on Tuesday that Washington will send in 17,000 more troops in the coming months. But even Gates admitted that the likelihood of European allies committing significant numbers of additional troops is small. Obama is clearly shifting U.S. priority from Iraq to Afghanistan. But European leaders are yet to convince their citizens that they also have a stake in the war in Afghanistan. So far only Italy has announced it will reinforce its contingent by 500 troops in Afghanistan.

The allies agreed that support for the Aug. 20 presidential elections in Afghanistan is a NATO priority for 2009. The defense ministers agreed that necessary forces should be provided to provide security for the polls, said Appathurai.

The spokesman did not rule out the deployment of NATO's rapid reaction force, the NATO Response Force (NRF), for this purpose. He said the use of the NRF is unlikely but not impossible. "The allies intend to be very flexible in terms of the way in which they categorize the forces that are used for election support."

NATO defense ministers agreed to enhance support for the Afghan national army and the national police.

Afghan national army force level will reach 86,000 by the end of March 2009, well ahead of schedule, said the NATO spokesman. The ultimate force level will be 134,000 by 2010, two years ahead of schedule.

The ministers are considering whether NATO should expand its role in supporting the Afghan national police, whose development has not been as successful as the army because of, primarily, corruption.

The ministers are considering whether NATO, which has up to now been in a support role in police training, should take a direct role, such as paramilitary training, said Appathurai.