NATO nations pledge emergency Afghan forces

RIGA, Nov 29 (Reuters) NATO countries signalled at a summit in Latvia they could free up more troops to battle Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan by easing restrictions on their forces in emergencies, officials said.

US President George W Bush had called before the meeting on allies to provide more soldiers with fewer national limits for the most dangerous ground mission in NATO's 57-year history.

France, Germany, Italy and Spain, who sparked a row by refusing calls in September to send troops to the Taliban's heartland in south Afghanistan, promised to send help to trouble zones outside their areas in exceptional cases, officials said yesterday.

''The President (Jacques Chirac) confirmed the possibility, on a case-by-case basis and on request, to send French troops outside their zone if necessary,'' French officials said after talks in the Latvian capital Riga.

Madrid's pledge was yet more guarded, with a Spanish official saying Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero had offered use of Spanish helicopters in exceptional circumstances to help evacuate wounded NATO solders, and not for combat.

France has a contingent in the capital Kabul and Spanish troops operate in the relatively calm west. Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, whose country also has soldiers in the west, said it would only move troops ''in extremis''.

Asked whether it was a failure for the summit that four large countries had not completely lifted restrictions on their troops, known as caveats, Prodi said: ''No, it's a clear position and it was an obvious position.'' The most urgent needs are in southern Afghanistan, the main battleground with resurgent Taliban fighters, where Canadian, British and Dutch soldiers have suffered heavy casualties.

''To succeed in Afghanistan, NATO allies must provide the forces NATO military commanders require,'' Bush said just before the summit began in Riga, many of whose inhabitants had left town to avoid disruption caused by the tight security.

''Member nations must accept difficult assignments if we expect to be successful,'' he said.

LONG HAUL One NATO official said Supreme Allied Commander James Jones estimated that 26,000 of the total 32,000 troops in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force were now ''more useable'' as a result of restrictions being eased.

He added that three nations had made initial pledges to send more troops, without giving details of how many or where they would go, and that several nations had pledged to raise their financial support for reconstruction in Afghanistan.

''From all of them, there was a strong message of determination and solidarity and a clear commitment to the long term,'' said the official.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer earlier complained allied forces in south Afghanistan were 20 per cent under-resourced and said the alliance had to do more.

''Afghanistan is mission possible,'' he said, pointing to progress in Afghan public health, education and economic growth.

A suicide bomber killed two Canadian soldiers on Monday in the latest attack on an alliance convoy in southern Afghanistan, prompting Canada's foreign minister to warn public support could turn against the mission if allies did not help.

Officials said a French idea for a ''contact group'' on Afghanistan to coordinate the international military effort and reconstruction had won broad backing, and that de Hoop Scheffer had been charged with drawing up detailed proposals.

Bush, weakened by election reverses at home, rejected talk that Iraq has plunged into civil war and vowed not to withdraw his troops until the completion of their mission.

He also restated his belief that democracy would triumph in the West Asia despite recent setbacks and reaffirmed support for further NATO enlargement into the former Soviet Union, backing Ukraine and Georgia as future members.

Russia, which objects to those plans, was not invited to the Riga summit, which Bush called ''the first time our alliance has met in one of the captive nations annexed by the Soviet Union''.

A statement by France that Russian President Vladimir Putin had proposed arriving after the summit for dinner today with French President Jacques Chirac and Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga startled officials in Riga.

But the Kremlin announced late yesterday that the visit, which would have been the first by a Russian president to Latvia since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, would not take place.

REUTERS SBA BST0830