NATO's military leaders will hold two further conferences aimed at pushing member states to commit more troops to the alliance's mission in Afghanistan, amid tough resistance from insurgents there.
After two days of closed-door discussions in the Polish capital, the alliance's military leaders agreed that further efforts are needed to plug shortfalls in the force, which has met strong resistance from the reformed Taliban along Afghanistan's southern border, NATO spokesman Colonel Brett Boudreau said on Saturday.
General Ray Henault, chairman of the NATO military committee, said he would appeal formally to the alliance's council today for member states to commit another 2,000 to 2,500 soldiers to confront the Taliban.
In addition, NATO military leaders will hold further conferences on Wednesday and Friday to address the issue of the shortfall of troops in southern Afghanistan and urge member states to live up to the numbers they had pledged to the mission, Boudreau said. Commitments to other missions will also be discussed.
"Afghanistan is the most complex mission NATO has ever undertaken," Henault said. "Our collective assessment is that we are satisfied with the military progress to date, particularly in the north and the west, but less so in the south, where it's been more difficult."
Henault said only 85 percent of forces required for the mission have been supplied by the member nations so far.
That was "considered acceptable by the commanders ... to undertake the level of mission activity that they had anticipated ... until they discovered the intensity of the resistance" from Taliban forces, he said.
The NATO military leaders' conference on Wednesday will "look to obtain the people and the equipment required to bring that 85 percent as close to 100 percent as possible," Boudreau said.
The second meeting will "look at addressing a shortfall in the immediate requirement and for subsequent rotation of forces" that the alliance has on other missions.
Last week, alliance commander General James Jones called for extra troops and aircraft to be sent to the south of Afghanistan, where NATO relieved US-led troops one month ago.
But the appeals were running into donor fatigue from several key NATO members, many of whom have indicated they had reached the limit of their capabilities.
Germany has ruled out sending additional troops to southern Afghanistan, saying the 2,800 it has deployed there have their hands full patrolling the north.
On Friday, Turkey's top military commander, General Yasar Buyukanit, said his country would not be contributing any combat troops to Afghanistan. Turkey currently has some 900 military personnel there helping with reconstruction.
Poland, in line with earlier plans, will be sending up to 60 officers next February to strengthen the alliance's command. They would come in addition to some 100 troops Poland has in the Bagram air base north of Kabul and three officers at Kabul airport.
Saturday was the final day of the talks. There was no indication at this point which of NATO's 26 nations would be willing to step deeper into a military situation with grim parallels to Iraq.
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