Page last updated at 05:56 GMT, Thursday, 19 February 2009

US urges Nato to up Afghan effort:

Top US commander in Afghanistan wants a 'persistent' presence of troops The US has urged its Nato allies to increase their troop levels in Afghanistan to fight the Taleban. The comments were made by US Defence Secretary Robert Gates ahead of Thursday's Nato summit in Poland. Meanwhile, America's top commander in Afghanistan predicted that the coming year would be "tough". Gen David McKiernan was speaking shortly after US President Barack Obama said he would deploy an additional 17,000 US soldiers in Afghanistan. Mr Obama said the extra US troops had been due to go to Iraq but were being redirected to "meet urgent security needs". Graph: US troop numbers in Afghanistan since 2001 This will bring the number of US forces in Afghanistan to more than 50,000. The US currently has about 14,000 troops serving with a Nato-led mission. There are also 19,000 US troops under sole US command charged with fighting Taleban and al-Qaeda insurgents. 'Serious question marks' "The [US] administration is prepared... to make additional commitments to Afghanistan, but there clearly will be expectations that the allies must do more as well," Mr Gates said. He said Washington was especially keen for its allies to supply troops ahead of Afghanistan's presidential elections in August, adding that "the response so far has been disappointing". He was speaking on board a US military plane en route to the two-day Nato meeting in Krakow. President Obama's move to send the extra troops to Afghanistan has raised the pressure on other allies to contribute more combat forces as well as civilian aid to help stabilise the country, the BBC's defence correspondent Caroline Wyatt in Krakow says. It has also raised serious question marks over some Nato members' resolve and political will, our correspondent says. She adds that Britain is also expected to add to that pressure on several Western European allies to shoulder a fairer share of the burden. Britain is the second biggest contributor to the Nato-led mission, with more than 8,000 troops deployed in Afghanistan. Few others appear willing to offer substantially more boots on the ground, despite the goodwill towards the new US leadership, our correspondent says. She says that at the very least though, Nato is hoping that more nations will pledge further funds, equipment and help on the civilian side in the run-up to the Afghan elections. 'Unfair' claims Meanwhile, UK Defence Secretary John Hutton rejected claims that some US military commanders were unhappy with the performance of the British troops in Afghanistan. In an interview with the Financial Times newspaper, Mr Hutton said: "I do not think that is fair, nor do I think that reflects the real view in the Pentagon and elsewhere. "There is a very high level of regard for the contribution that UK forces have made in Iraq and Afghanistan. "We will not change our tactics in Afghanistan on the basis of uncorroborated and unsourced gossip from people who don't have the courage to put their names to their remarks," Mr Hutton said. * Allocation of new deployment between Operation Enduring Freedom and Nato ISAF to be confirmed.