UK seeks more NATO hardware for Afghanistan

LONDON, Feb 20 (Reuters) Britain accused its NATO allies today of failing to send enough troops and hardware to fight Taliban guerrillas in southern Afghanistan.

''This is a real test of the resolve and of the credibility of NATO and I'm not sure that every NATO member understands the significance of that,'' Kim Howells, the Foreign Office minister responsible for Afghanistan told parliament.

''If they did then I'm sure they'd be far more ready to put more troops and more assets down into the south where the real battle is going on at the moment,'' he said.

He added: ''I know of countries that have helicopters that might as well be parked up in leading European airports for the amount of good they are doing in some parts of Afghanistan.'' NATO has a force of more than 30,000 troops in Afghanistan and many countries have contributed, but the brunt of most fighting has been borne by US, British, Canadian and Dutch forces deployed in the restive south.

Washington and London have complained that other NATO allies -- while voting in favour of the mission -- have sent too few troops and aircraft, and placed restrictions on their forces preventing them from being sent to the battle zone in the south.

Britain is due to increase its force in the south of Afghanistan by 800 over the next few months, adding a third battalion of infantry and bringing its total number of troops above 6,000, nearly all deployed in the south.

Reuters AB RN2333