US urges wary NATO allies to boost Afghan fight

SEVILLE, Spain, Feb 8 (Reuters) The United States stepped up pressure on NATO allies today to send more troops to Afghanistan to crush an expected Taliban offensive, saying the next few weeks would be pivotal in battling the insurgency.

Despite mounting impatience in Washington, European nations were likely to deflect the calls at the meeting of defence chiefs in the Spanish city of Seville and signs emerged of differences over tactics in what is the toughest mission in NATO's 58-year history.

New US and British reinforcements mean the two allies will now be providing over half of the 33,000-strong NATO Afghan force between them, with their troops located predominantly in the Taliban's southern heartlands and by the Pakistan border.

''We think the upcoming spring in Afghanistan is a pivotal moment in the conflict and we're encouraging the allies to do as much as they can, as soon as they can,'' said a senior US defence official travelling with Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

''We're doing our bit,'' the official said. ''So we'll see what the allies can do.'' US General Bantz Craddock, who took over as NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe in December, will call on allies to come up with a further 2,500 troops as part of his review of the mission's needs, one alliance source said.

NATO is expecting Taliban insurgents to step up violence in coming weeks as snows melt and the weather gets warmer. The Islamic militant group over-ran the town of Musa Qala in the southern Helmand province last week and is threatening to step up suicide bomb attacks in coming weeks.

''If we don't send more troops to Afghanistan, there is a risk we could fail,'' Danish Defence Minister Soeren Gade, whose country has some 390 troops mainly in the south, told reporters.

DIFFERENCES Spain, the Netherlands, France, Italy and Turkey have all ruled out reinforcements. Germany, which yesterday confirmed plans to send six reconnaissance jets to the south, has resisted calls to deploy any of its nearly 3,000 troops to the south.

European capitals argue their armies are already stretched by NATO, UN and European Union missions around the world and say that committing to send more troops to Afghanistan would threaten fragile public support for the mission in Europe.

''The issue is not always talking about military resources but meshing security and reconstruction,'' German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung told reporters of concerns that NATO must do more to boost often haphazard reconstruction work.

One US official said there were clear differences between Washington and some allies on how to manage the conflict, with the United States insisting a greater effort on reconstruction should not be a precondition for sending more troops.

''You can't focus on reconstruction without getting security first and the secretary is going to stress the military nature of this group,'' the official said of Gates' address to the meeting.

With more than 4,000 people killed in violence, last year was the bloodiest in Afghanistan since US-led forces toppled the Taliban Islamist government in 2001.

Bush's Republicans face elections in 2008 and his administration sees the next 12 months as a crunch time in which it must show voters it is getting the upper hand against insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan.

REUTERS BDP PM2323