Rice pushes for more troops in Afghanistan

THE United States Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, and the British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, arrived in Afghanistan yesterday in a symbolic show of unity on the eve of a meeting of NATO defence ministers where reluctant European allies will be pressed to share the combat burden.

"Frankly, I hope there will be more troop contributions and there need to be more Afghan forces," Dr Rice said.

Some NATO countries have bristled at public criticism from Washington over the refusal of a number of alliance members to put forces in the more dangerous south of Afghanistan to fight Taliban insurgents. NATO officials were due to meet yesterday in Vilnius, Lithuania, to discuss the issue.

Mr Miliband said the Afghan Government also had responsibilities to live up to in battling the Taliban.

With criticism of the war in Afghanistan increasing on both sides of the Atlantic, Dr Rice said in London on Wednesday that European governments needed to convince their people that sending troops to Afghanistan - and keeping them there - should remain a priority for NATO.

"I do think the alliance is facing a test here," Dr Rice said. "Populations have to understand that this is not just a peacekeeping fight."

The German Defence Minister, Franz Josef Jung, rejected a sharply worded letter last week from the US Secretary of Defence, Robert Gates, asking that Germany send soldiers and helicopters to southern Afghanistan, where the heaviest fighting has taken place. Instead, Mr Jung said Germany would deploy a rapid reaction force in northern Afghanistan to replace the Norwegians. More