Afghan headache

The head of NATO called on the alliance to step up efforts to train and equip Afghan forces, warning that withdrawal would have serious consequences in the region. Rasmussen was addressing reporters at a security conference on Thursday before a meeting of defense ministers in the Slovak capital Bratislava.

"We all have to achieve more in training and equipping the Afghan security forces," Rasmussen said, "We need other international actors to redouble their efforts to help with reconstruction and development. We have to do more today if we want to be able to do less tomorrow."

Although the defense ministers are not expected to announce troop increases at the meeting, it appears that Rasmussen is hoping to use the summit to galvanize NATO member states facing growing domestic opposition to the war.

"I am well aware that an increasing number of people are asking if the cost of our engagement in Afghanistan is too high," he said, "To these people, I want to say very clearly that the cost of inactivity would be far higher."

NATO wants Afghan security forces to take over defence tasks eventually, but Rasmussen believes that continued military presence is vital for security both in the region and in the west. A NATO military withdrawal would result in Afghanistan becoming an Al-Qaeda training ground, Rasmussen claimed.

Misgivings in member states

But while Rasmussen hopes that the ministers will endorse the massive troop increases advocated by NATO commander in Afghanistan General Stanley McChrystal, there is clear reluctance throughout the alliance to commit more soldiers.

McChrystal's proposes to strengthen the Afghan army and police to 400,000, which would require a significant increase in the number of training teams, as well as tens of thousands of new NATO troops on the ground. There are already 65,000 US troops in Afghanistan and another 39,000 from allied nations.

At the conference, US Assistant Secretary of Defense Alexander Vershbow also linked domestic security to stability in Afghanistan and said the operation there was "not an American battle, it is a NATO mission".

But diplomats say most European NATO states are reluctant to participate and Washington would have to contribute heavily to an increase, despite waning support in the US too.

$500-million budget hole

NATO is also coming under financial pressure, thanks to a combination of the massive commitment in Afghanistan and the global economic crisis, organization spokesman James Appathurai told reporters Thursday.

"In the next few years we foresee a shortfall of several hundred million euros between what governments have committed to do within NATO budgets … and what they have allocated in terms of money to pay for that," Appathurai said.

Accordingly, spending problems will also be on the agenda in Bratislava, and Rasmussen is expected to ask the 28 member nations to try to set better priorities, pool their resources and strive to be more cost-effective.

"The financial situation in the world ... makes it all the more important that a little bit of imagination and political courage is demonstrated when it comes to the money aspects of what we do," Appathurai said.

An anonymous NATO diplomat was quoted Tuesday saying that the budget hole would amount to between 500 and 600 million euros ($750 - 900 million) in the alliance's infrastructure budget over the next few years.

A separate budget is used to fund military operations and is unlikely to be greatly affected for the moment, he said.

"NATO is facing a resource crunch next year," he added, describing it as "significantly worrying" and "a problem that we have never had before".

The inside source suggest that about 30 percent of the infrastructure budget is currently being used for the operation in Afghanistan, on items such as communications, but that the mission itself was not under threat.

bk/Reuters/AFP
Editor: Michael Lawton