Afghan mission vital for NATO's credibility: Scheffer

By Hamid Shalizi

KABUL (Reuters) - NATO's secretary-general on Thursday said the alliance's future rested on its mission in Afghanistan, amid tension among some of its members over sending troops to fight Taliban and al Qaeda militants.

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and NATO ambassadors are on a visit to Afghanistan, which some Western politicians said recently "risked becoming a failed state" again because of rising insecurity, rampant corruption and a booming illegal drugs trade.

After holding talks with President Hamid Karzai, Scheffer said the alliance took the security crisis facing the Central Asian country very seriously and that the mission went to the heart of NATO's credibility.

The alliance has about 50,000 troops in Afghanistan.

"It is not a mission of choice but necessity with the fact that we are in this fight together," Scheffer told reporters in a joint news conference with Karzai.

"...Because if we do not prevail or lose, it will not only be Afghanistan on the losing side, it will be our community and society in the West and elsewhere as well. This is a very important notion we should see. And we take this very seriously."

NATO's mission to Afghanistan is the first major foreign deployment for the alliance.

The U.S. military leads a separate force in the country where frustration is rising among many ordinary people over the perceived lack of development and security Western leaders had promised before the Taliban were driven from power in 2001.

U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban's government after it refused to hand over al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, whom Washington says is the architect of the September 11 attacks on the United States.

The militants have made a comeback in the past two years and violence is at its worst since the Taliban's fall. More than 11,000 people, including more than 350 foreign troops, have been killed during the past two years.

U.S. troops form the bulk of foreign forces in Afghanistan and Washington has repeatedly urged its allies to shoulder more of the burden in the fight against the militants.

France, Germany, Italy and Spain have troops in relatively secure areas and have refused to send troops to southern and eastern provinces where the militants are most active.

During a recent meeting of NATO defense ministers, no NATO nation pledged to send additional soldiers to the volatile south and east.

Scheffer said the alliance would another meeting in April to discuss Afghanistan.

(Writing by Sayed Salahuddin, editing by xx)