NATO defense ministers meeting here on Thursday reaffirmed their plans to expand the alliance's control of southern Afghanistan in the face of increased resistance by Taliban fighters and drug traffickers.
NATO has been progressively increasing the number of its troops and its reach in Afghanistan. That operation has emerged as a major test of the alliance's ability to respond to new security challenges far from Europe.
Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak of Afghanistan said Taliban fighters had stepped up their attacks to "take advantage of this time of transition." The NATO secretary-general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, said allied troops would be tested and they would "react robustly."
The plan for Afghanistan was a main subject at the meeting, which also dealt with plans to establish a NATO Response Force to deal with new crises, among other initiatives that are to be formally ratified when allied leaders hold a summit meeting in November in Riga, Latvia.
US Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld began the session by telling the ministers of the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. "The minister thought, and I think, that this is positive news for the Iraqi people," said Henk Kemp, the Dutch defense minister.
NATO has deployed a 9,700-troop force in Afghanistan that experts expect to grow to 16,000, with 6,000 deployed in southern Afghanistan, one of the most restive regions. The troops are officially part of the International Security Assistance Force and are under a British commander, Lieutenant General David Richards, who said recently that the arrival of NATO troops would make it possible to better control southern Afghanistan.
NATO is deploying double the number of US troops they are replacing in the south.
"They have been relatively short of troops, of boots on the ground," Richards recently said about the Americans.
Experts had been concerned that the rules of engagement might vary significantly among the allies. Some countries have restricted where or how their troops can be used.
A US military officer, who was not identified because he was not authorized to discuss the subject publicly, said there would be no such restrictions on operations in the south, which will involve Australian, British, Canadian and Dutch troops. The deployment in the south is scheduled to be completed by August.
While NATO is deploying troops, the US will keep 20,000 in the country under a separate American chain of command. The US is retaining responsibility for the volatile eastern region that abuts some of the most lawless areas in Pakistan. Those are widely believed to be a sanctuary for Taliban forces and al-Qaida leaders.
The NATO operation will eventually move into a new and even more ambitious phase when the alliance assumes responsibility for all of Afghanistan. At that point, a new joint headquarters will be established and Richards will hand over his responsibilities to a US officer.
The timing of that phase, however, remains uncertain.
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