US urges NATO allies to do more in Afghanistan

RIGA, Nov 27 (Reuters) The United States called on NATO allies today to do more in Afghanistan, but acknowledged on the eve of an alliance summit that domestic politics were holding back some countries from a more robust presence there.

The call came as a suicide bomber killed two Canadian soldiers in an attack on an alliance convoy in the south of Afghanistan, underlining the risks in NATO's most dangerous ground combat to date.

Afghanistan will top the agenda at the summit in the Latvian capital Riga. Countries such as Germany, Spain, Italy and France will come under pressure from other allies to allow their troops to take part in the worst fighting in the south, something they have resisted so far.

''If allies have agreed by consensus to take on a mission, then as a matter of solidarity, allies should help each other to carry out the mission,'' said a senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The official noted that the ideal situation would be that all countries removed all restrictions, known as ''caveats'', on what their troops could do and where they could go, but added: ''Anything that is a move in that direction would be positive.

Every country has its own domestic politics and has to sort out what it has to do.'' The 32,000-strong NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has encountered heavy casualties since British, Canadian and Dutch troops moved in late August into the south of the country, the heartland of the Taliban. More than 150 foreign soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan this year.

CHIRAC PROPOSAL Germany has insisted that its 2,800 troops concentrated in the calmer north are bound to that area by parliamentary mandate, and Chancellor Angela Merkel reaffirmed last week it would not deploy soldiers to the south.

That stance has led to criticism from other allies and NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer sought last week to lower the temperature by proposing that caveats be lifted at least in an emergency.

There has been little public reaction to the compromise bid so far, but German officials have previously noted that the parliament mandate governing their troops does allow them to operate elsewhere on temporary missions.

NATO officials will also use the summit to appeal for leaders to offer more troops to plug a shortfall that ISAF commanders put at some 2,500 soldiers. De Hoop Scheffer told a news briefing on Monday he had no news yet of concrete offers.

A second major concern is that the violence has slowed the pace of reconstruction, raising fears the Taliban are gaining support in the countryside and reinforcing perceptions President Hamid Karzai has little control outside Kabul.

France said President Jacques Chirac would ask fellow leaders tomorrow to set up a ''contact group'' to review the mission in Afghanistan and boost often haphazard ties with other institutions working on the ground there.

The group would comprise all the nations contributing forces to ISAF, including non-NATO members like New Zealand, countries in the region and international organisations such as the World Bank and United Nations, a presidential source said.

A French diplomat, who declined to be named, said that without a clear strategy on aid, the NATO peacekeeping mission to Afghanistan risked becoming a mission that was trying to impose peace on the country.

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