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NATO allies offer limp response to U.S. Afghan call
Thu Feb 19, 2009 2:41pm EST
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By David Brunnstrom and David Morgan
KRAKOW, Poland (Reuters) - The United States asked NATO allies on Thursday to do their fair share in Afghanistan by sending more forces to provide security for a presidential election in August, but got only a limited response.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he would not seek a specific number of extra troops from a NATO defense ministers' meeting in Krakow, but called for a short-term deployment of troops from the alliance's rapid response force, the NRF, which has never been used.
"It is a new administration and is prepared to make additional commitments to Afghanistan. But there clearly will be expectations that the allies must do more as well," he said.
U.S. President Barack Obama authorized 17,000 more U.S. troops for Afghanistan this week, taking the U.S. contingent to around 55,000, in addition to 30,000 from 40 other countries, most of them in NATO, already operating in Afghanistan.
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said there was a strong commitment among allies to ensure sufficient forces for the election, but European allies have responded to pleas for more troops with pledges in the hundreds, not thousands.
Italy said on Wednesday it would send 500 more troops by April and Germany confirmed a pledge of 600 more soldiers.
Britain, with the second largest force in Afghanistan, said it was up to other NATO states to step up their commitments.
France reiterated it had no plans to send more forces.
GERMAN OBJECTIONS
Germany, which has long resisted calls for it to remove restrictions on the way its own forces can be used in Afghanistan, said the NRF should not be used for Afghan duty.
U.S. officials have long been frustrated by European reluctance to make new long-term troop commitments and Gates conceded it was unlikely big increases would come soon.
De Hoop Scheffer said: "Let me make clear, more forces is not only leaning back and waiting for our American friends to bring in more forces. It's very much for the other allies to live up to their commitments.
"We need an equal civilian surge as well ... which means more development, more support for governance and more institution building."
De Hoop Scheffer said it was possible some nations might soon be forced to scale back military commitments due to the global economic crisis, although this had not yet happened.
"We need our forces in Afghanistan and we need defense budgets that are adequate," he said. Continued...
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