NATO struggles for unity over Afghan war

By Patrick Lannin and Sue Pleming

At a meeting in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, defence ministers with troops fighting fierce battles against the Taliban in the south of Afghanistan backed calls by the United States for more countries to send forces there.

Violence has risen sharply in the past two years in Afghanistan, which has been occupied by Western forces for six.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said the alliance, responsible for security across Afghanistan, had made good progress but acknowledged more needed to be done.

U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates toned down his rhetoric, a day after saying NATO was at risk of splitting into members who are willing to "fight and die to protect people's security and those who were not".

"I came away from the meeting encouraged," he said. "I think everybody understands the nature of the problem."

"Frankly, I hope there will be more troop contributions and there need to be more Afghan forces," Rice told reporters travelling with her and Miliband.

Rice dismissed independent reports that Afghanistan risked becoming a failed state and said "remarkable progress" had been made. But she said the war would not end soon.

The NATO-led ISAF force has about 43,000 troops in Afghanistan. Canada, Britain, the United States and the Netherlands are bearing the brunt of the fighting in the south, and they want other countries to contribute more in what has become the toughest campaign in NATO's 59-year history.

"I think we are doing our bit fully in Afghanistan," Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung told reporters. He noted Germany's 3,000-plus contingent was the third largest in Afghanistan.

"These are issues that are being examined. To my knowledge no decision has been reached yet," said spokesman David Martinon.

It was not clear whether that would be in time for Canada, whose minority government faces a parliamentary vote of confidence next month on prolonging the mandate of its 2,500 troops in southern Afghanistan.

Rice and Miliband travelled to a military base in the southern city of Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban and the main city in Afghanistan's most volatile region. They met NATO commanders and troops before travelling to Kabul to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

(Additional reporting by Mark John in Vilnius, Francois Murphy in Paris and Paul Taylor in Brussels)