NATO allies offer limp response to U.S. Afghan call

KRAKOW, Poland (Reuters) - The United States asked NATO allies Thursday to do their fair share in Afghanistan by sending more forces to provide security for a presidential election in August, but got only a limited response.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he would not seek a specific number of extra NATO troops from a NATO defense ministers' meeting in the Polish city of Krakow, but would like a short-term deployment of troops from the alliance's rapid response force, the NRF, which has never been used.

"It is a new administration and is prepared to make additional commitments to Afghanistan. But there clearly will be expectations that the allies must do more as well," he told reporters.

U.S. President Barack Obama authorized 17,000 more U.S. troops for Afghanistan this week, taking the U.S. contingent to around 55,000, in addition to 30,000 from 40 other countries, most of them in NATO, already operating in Afghanistan.

Some European allies have announced plans to send more troops, but these numbered in the hundreds, not thousands, and Germany said the NRF should not be used for Afghan duty.

"The NRF should not be used as a reserve," German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung told reporters in Krakow.

Gates told the meeting that boosting commitments should not be solely a U.S. business, but one that "needs to be balanced by all the allies," NATO spokesman James Appathurai said.

"I am quite confident as we get closer to the elections the necessary forces will be provided," he said.

Gates said Washington would seek allies' input for its Afghan strategy review, which is expected to stress the need for better police training, governance and development -- aims the allies have been flagging for years.

U.S. officials have long been frustrated by European reluctance to make new long-term troop commitments and Gates said it was unlikely big increases would come soon.

"WE REALLY NEED ADDITIONAL HELP"

But he said Washington hoped NATO countries where the Afghan mission is politically unpopular could make significant new contributions to civilian development.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer also called at the meeting for non-NATO supporters to help the alliance effort.

"If we allow extremism and terrorism a safe haven in that region, we guarantee ourselves and our children a much more dangerous world," he said.

Italy said Wednesday it would send 500 more troops by April and Germany confirmed a pledge of 600 more soldiers.

Britain, with the second largest force in Afghanistan, said it was up to other NATO states to step up their commitments.

France reiterated it had no plans to send more forces.

Bob Jackson of London's Chatham House think-tank said if European allies failed to respond, Washington would go it alone.

"In the lead-up to the Iraq war, some European leaders said they were not consulted properly. Do they want to be shut out of the process altogether? Europe will have opted out of the most important decision facing NATO since the end of the Cold War."

(Additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska)