NATO defense ministers were to meet in Germany yesterday to discuss the future of the transatlantic military alliance, notably boosting its presence in Afghanistan and defining the role it could play in Iraq.
Diplomatic sources have said the focus of the informal meeting, held around a working lunch, will be to ensure a successful mission in Afghanistan, probably by deploying more troops to regions outside the capital.
"We cannot afford to lose in Afghanistan," NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Thursday after meeting German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer.
Iraq's security, and NATO's part in it, will also be broached at the meeting, which comes ahead of a weekend security conference here, as well as the damage caused to transatlantic ties by the US-led war there.
A year after the war began, the fact that no weapons of mass destruction have been found and inquiries have been launched into intelligence findings in the US and Britain could foster more conflict.
With the US military badly stretched and elections approaching, the talks may provide US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld with an opportunity to mend fences, as Washington needs help as it prepares to return sovereignty to the Iraqis.
Rumsfeld expressed hope here Thursday that NATO will assume a larger role in Iraq but said the alliance's priority now should be its expanded peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan.
"I think NATO's ... first task is to do well the Afghan task," Rumsfeld told reporters on the flight from Washington. "The next step might be for them to take on a somewhat larger role in Afghanistan."
"With respect to Iraq, they have stepped forward and been working with the Polish and Spanish multinational division, and we would hope they would they would continue to take a still larger role," he said.
Rumsfeld antagonized some western European allies last year by referring to them as "Old Europe" and arguing that NATO's center of gravity was shifting to the new members from former Soviet bloc countries.
"I would say the relationships right now are very normal," he said.
Afghanistan was NATO's first mission outside Europe. It took command last August of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which was set up in December 2001 after the defeat of the hardline Taliban regime.
The Alliance wants to extend ISAF's operations beyond the capital, Kabul, and press reports suggest it could double the number of troops present and create up to 18 civilian reconstruction teams, up from around 10 currently planned.
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