NATO chief says more needed for Afghan force

NEW YORK, Sep 22: NATO members need to do more to boost their force in Afghanistan in the battle against the Taliban despite significant pledges of more troops, alliance Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said.

''Allies are stepping up to the plate so I'm not unhappy about that. At the same time, I think we need more progress,'' he said after a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in New York.

NATO's top operational commander, US Marine Gen James Jones, called this month for reinforcements and more equipment to help tackle tougher than expected resistance from Taliban militants after the alliance moved into southern Afghanistan.

Also yesterday, a US defense official said NATO military commanders told Jones that Afghanistan's eastern region, which also faces rising Taliban violence, was ready to shift from American to NATO control.

US-led forces in Afghanistan are primarily responsible for hunting Taliban and al Qaeda fighters, while the NATO force's main mission is to provide security to bolster reconstruction and economic development efforts.

The United States has some 21,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and a US general said the US military presence would likely remain at that level until a review early next year.

While commanders have said they planned for NATO to take control of the east this year, a surge in violence in both the south and east had raised questions about the timeline.

The 20,000-strong NATO-led force has been engaged in tough combat in recent weeks as Afghanistan faces its bloodiest phase of violence since the ouster of the Taliban government in 2001.

Jones said on Wednesday NATO now had pledges for about 2,000 of the 2,500 extra troops he appealed for on September 7, although some had not been made public by member nations.

De Hoop Scheffer said the alliance still wanted more attack helicopters and transport aircraft and hoped more member states would lift restrictions -- known as caveats -- on how and where their troops can operate in Afghanistan.

''What is important is that... nations do more than they have done to lift their caveats,'' he told a news conference.

EXTRA TROOPS NATO diplomats said Poland and Romania were expected to contribute about 1,000 extra troops each, which would begin arriving in early October. Denmark was also considering increasing its presence, the diplomats said.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said yesterday, ''We want the international community to stay in Afghanistan until Afghanistan is firmly on its feet, meaning: until the time Afghanistan has its own army, its own police, its own institutional strength and the ability, economically and otherwise, to defend the country from within and outside.'' Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, he said the Taliban had been able to keep harassing Afghanistan ''because we are not able to provide better protection to the Afghan people.'' NATO and US commanders insist the Taliban forces do not pose a strong military challenge to international forces.

''Militarily, the situation remains extremely manageable,'' US Lt Gen Karl Eikenberry said yesterday in Washington.

''Wherever our forces go, wherever NATO forces go, increasingly wherever the ... Afghan national army goes, then the enemy is defeated and they disappear,'' he told reporters.

''We're still at a stage now, about four-plus years into this campaign, where the challenge is developing the government of Afghanistan, extending its influence, developing Afghan national security forces.'' Eikenberry said US troop levels in Afghanistan would hold steady through February 2007, when US commanders would reassess needs as they take leadership from Britain of the NATO force.

Reuters