By Sue Pleming
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of StateCondoleezza Rice and Foreign Secretary David Miliband arrivedin Afghanistan on Thursday in a symbolic show of unity,pressing reluctant NATO allies to share the combat burden.
"Frankly, I hope there will be more troop contributions andthere needs to be more Afghan forces," Rice told reporterstravelling with her on the flight from London.
Rice, speaking against the backdrop of a NATO defenceministers' meeting in Lithuania, said alliance members neededto "come together to give enough military power to do whatneeds to be done on the front end of the counter-insurgencyeffort".
After flying into the Afghan capital Kabul, Rice andMiliband travelled in a U.S. military plane to a sprawling basein the southern city of Kandahar, the birthplace of the Talibanand the main city in Afghanistan's most volatile region.
"Kandahar does have an iconic status in the history andposition of Afghanistan," said Miliband. "I hope we will beable to take a message in what is really a new drive, a newphase in terms of counter-insurgency."
Rice and Miliband met NATO commanders in the frontline ofthe fight against the Taliban and afterwards addressed troops.Rice gave a rousing speech praising soldiers' bravery andsacrifice.
"This is a fight which will transform history," she said.
The United States and Britain are urging other NATO membersto share more of the combat burden in southern Afghanistanwhere the Taliban insurgency is strongest.
Some NATO countries have bristled at public criticism fromWashington over the refusal of a number of alliance members toposition their forces in the more dangerous south.
Germany, for example, under its parliamentary mandate cansend only 3,500 soldiers to the less dangerous north as part ofthe 42,000-strong NATO mission.
That means most of the fighting against the Taliban isshouldered by Canada, Britain, the United States and theNetherlands. They all want others to contribute more.
Canada has threatened to pull its troops out unless otherallies come forward, and Poland's foreign minister has warnedagainst "free-riding" in the alliance.
FIGHT BACK
The Taliban, ousted from power by a U.S.-led invasion in2001, fought back strongly last year. More than 6,000 peopledied in fighting in 2007, nearly 2,000 of them civilians.
Rice and Miliband travelled to Afghanistan after talks inLondon on Wednesday.
"We want to spotlight the fact that we and several otherallies are standing up and doing the tough job," said a seniorU.S. official, who declined to be identified.
Few NATO officials expect major new contributions to beannounced during the two-day meeting in Lithuania's capitalVilnius, but Washington wants to extract promises over comingweeks for reinforcements in the south by year-end.
Specifically, the United States wants assurances thatallies will fill the gap when some 3,200 U.S. Marines leave thesouth after a temporary deployment there later this year.
The Taliban have suffered heavy casualties whenever theyhave fought NATO forces, but have dramatically undermined thesense of security with a wave of suicide bombings across thecountry.
A Taliban suicide bomber wounded one Afghan civilian ineastern Afghanistan on Thursday in a failed attack on a foreigntroop convoy, a provincial official said.
NATO commanders believe the tactic is aimed at sapping thewill of European governments to keep troops in the country inthe face of popular disquiet over the mission.
Some analysts see the NATO force in Afghanistan as far toosmall. "There are no clear indicators that the NATO countries,including the United States, are willing to invest a level ofcombat forces that would lead to success in southernAfghanistan," said Sean Kay, chair of International Studies atOhio Wesleyan University.
(Editing by Katie Nguyen)
