Roadside bomb kills 2 NATO soldiers in Afghan

Kabul, Nov 29: A roadside bomb killed two NATO soldiers in Afghanistan, as the alliance decided to increase its forces in the country to overcome a resurgent Taliban.

Yesterday's attack struck a combat patrol in Logar province, about 60 km (40 miles) south of the Kabul, NATO said.

The Taliban has launched a wave of attacks in recent days, killing six NATO soldiers in the past week.

On Monday, two Canadian soldiers died when a suicide bomber rammed his car into their convoy in the southern city of Kandahar.

NATO leaders at a summit in Riga will declare their determination today to prevail over the Taliban, but the increase in troop numbers is only small.

Afghanistan was the sole focus of yesterday's working dinner at the summit in the Latvian capital, and many of the 26 member nations expressed hope the most dangerous ground mission in NATO's 57-year history could yet succeed.

A NATO spokesman said three countries had pledged more troops and a majority had agreed to ease restrictions on where and how their forces could fight in Afghanistan.

He declined to name the countries, but said they were in addition to Canada, Denmark and the Czech Republic, which have already made public pledges to increase troop levels.

''A number of nations said they will look to increase, in some cases substantially, their financial commitments to the civilian efforts in Afghanistan, development assistance, reconstruction,'' he added.

Still, several major nations made it clear they had not completely lifted restrictions.

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said Italy's position on troop locations and numbers had not changed and it would only move forces ''in extremis''.

But France, Germany, Italy and Spain, who sparked a row by refusing calls in September to send troops to the Taliban's southern heartland, promised to send help to trouble zones outside their patches in emergencies, officials said.

REUTERS