U.S. steps up pressure on allies over Afghanistan
By Mark John
VILNIUS, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Germany, France and other NATO allies will face a concerted U.S.-led call on Thursday to send troops to Afghanistan's violent south.
Washington is heading the campaign for what it calls a fairer burden-sharing in the fight against Taliban insurgents, with Britain, Canada, Poland and others adding their voices to the appeal before NATO talks in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reinforced the message on Wednesday, noting that only a small number of NATO nations had troops in the areas where the insurgents are most active.
"We believe very strongly that there ought to be a sharing of that burden throughout the (NATO) alliance," she said after talks on Afghan strategy with British leaders.
Few alliance officials expect major new contributions to be announced during the two-day meeting but the United States is determined over the coming weeks to extract promises for reinforcements in the south later this year.
Pentagon chief Robert Gates last week raised hackles by sending letters to European capitals pressing them to send troops south. He said he would again "become a nag" on the issue at the NATO defence ministers meeting in Lithuania.
"I worry a great deal about the alliance evolving into a two-tiered alliance in which you have some allies willing to fight and die to protect people's security and others who are not," Gates told a congressional committee on Wednesday.
Germany rejected Gates' appeal last week, insisting it is already close to the limit of its parliamentary mandate to supply up to 3,500 troops in the relatively calm north.
On Wednesday it announced it would add some 200 troops to a rapid reaction force in that same region.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in December France could boost its presence in Afghanistan to help the Afghan army and police. Along with Spain and Italy, France has long insisted its army is already stretched by existing commitments elsewhere.
Specifically, the United States wants assurances that allies will fill the gap when some 3,200 U.S. Marines leave the south after a temporary deployment there later this year.
"FREE-RIDING"
In recent weeks, Canada has threatened to pull its troops out unless other allies come forward, and Poland's foreign minister has warned against "free-riding" in the alliance.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told parliament on Wednesday he wanted NATO allies at a summit in Bucharest in April to commit to a fair sharing of the task.
"We have 15 percent of the troops in Afghanistan ... We need a proper burden sharing not only in terms of personnel but also in terms of helicopters and other equipment," he said.
France, Germany, Italy and Spain point out that they offered troops in the early stages of the mission when it was confined to the centre, north and west of the country, and that it would not make sense for them to redeploy now.
ISAF has since 2003 more than quadrupled in size to its current 43,000 strength and NATO spokesman James Appathurai said last month ISAF is now "close to what our military believe is our full requirement".
But with violence on the rise, some analysts still see the force as far too small.
"There are no clear indicators that the NATO countries, including the United States, are willing to invest a level of combat forces that would lead to success in southern Afghanistan," said Sean Kay, chair of International Studies at Ohio Wesleyan University.
He said at least double the current number of 12,000 troops in the south was needed to battle the insurgency.
The Taliban, ousted from power in a 2001 U.S.-led invasion, have since tried and failed to take on NATO contingents in direct combat and have reverted to a strategy based on suicide and roadside bombings to inflict casualties.
NATO commanders believe the tactic is aimed at gradually sapping the will of European governments to keep troops in the country in the face of popular disquiet over the mission. (Reporting by Mark John; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
