NATO chief lashes Europe over Afghanistan, calls for more troops

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer blasted Europe's reluctance to respond to American calls for more troops in Afghanistan, saying countries like Germany and France needed to "share the heavy lifting."

"I am frankly concerned when I hear the United States is planning a major commitment for Afghanistan, but other allies ruling out doing more," he was quoted by AFP as saying at a major international security conference in Munich, attended by Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan.

"That is not good for the political balance of this mission. That is not good for the balance inside the North Atlantic alliance," he said. "Leadership and burdens -- they go together."

Scheffer, who did not single out any nation, warned that the failure to step up "makes calls for Europe’s voice to be heard in Washington perhaps a bit more hollow than they should be."

New U.S. President Barack Obama has singled out Afghanistan as his main front in the "war on terrorism" and plans to deploy 30,000 more U.S. troops there over the next 18 months.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is embarked on its biggest and most-ambitious operation ever trying to spread the influence of the weak Afghan government across the strife-torn country and help foster reconstruction.

But the Taliban and its backers, including al Qaeda, drug lords and criminal gangs, have been waging an increasingly tenacious insurgency, using neighboring Pakistan as a rear base, and seriously undermining NATO’s goals.

Britain, Canada, the Netherlands and the United States have troops on the frontline of that fight in southern Afghanistan, but other allies insist that reconstruction is as important as combat and refuse to redeploy.

U.S. CALLS FOR NEW STRATEGY

A comprehensive new strategy for Afghanistan must be agreed by the NATO summit in April, U.S. national security adviser and retired Gen. James Jones said.

Jones, who is to speak at the Munich Security Conference later on Saturday, told the German Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily the problems in Afghanistan required more than a military response.

"Not everything has collapsed but the trends don't look good," Jones was quoted as telling the paper by Reuters.

"We need more than a military solution," he added, noting that it was a mistake that the country's justice system was not being reformed more thoroughly and that more police were not being trained.

By the NATO summit in April, a new, comprehensive strategy had to be developed, the paper quoted him as saying without giving direct quotes, Reuters reported.

NATO and the Afghan government had to stop the drugs business to curb the "economic fuel of the insurgency."

Jones said the United States would conduct a general review of its foreign policy within 60 days.