NATO defense ministers on Thursday approved an extension of the alliance's security mission in Afghanistan to include the entire country, taking in the volatile eastern region and bringing up to 12,000 more US troops under allied command.
The move is expected to take place in the next few weeks, hard on the heels of the advance by NATO troops into the southern sector two months ago. That advance has sparked fierce resistance from Taliban fighters and dragged the alliance into the first major ground combat since it was formed six decades ago.
The ministers also agreed to provide substantial amounts of military equipment to the Afghan army, which has been fighting alongside NATO troops battling with Taliban insurgents in the south of the country.
PHOTO: AP
Pentagon officials said the transfer of troops currently in Afghanistan's eastern region would entail the biggest deployment of US forces under foreign command since World War II.
Afghanistan is experiencing the most serious violence since hard line Taliban Islamists were ousted in 2001.
Militant attacks in eastern Afghanistan, near the border with Pakistan, have tripled in some areas, the US military said on Thursday, despite a peace agreement on the Pakistani side meant to end the violence.
Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf stressed his commitment to fighting the Taliban in talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
"President Musharraf said he was determined to deal with the Taliban and reduce the level of cross-border activity," a spokesman for the prime minister said.
The NATO accord came as European nations failed to plug all troop shortfalls identified by commanders battling the Taliban insurgency, and will mean the US providing up to 12,000 of some 32,000 NATO troops that will be under British command.
"I am grateful that the United States has decided to bring its military forces under the ISAF," Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told reporters after a NATO meeting in Slovenia, referring to NATO's International Security Assistance Force.
"It should not be used as an argument that we can now rest on our laurels," he added, urging other allies to come forward with extra troops for the more dangerous south.
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said it was "perfectly understandable" if other NATO allies restricted where their troops could operate, but added it undermined NATO's flexibility on the ground.
"The aggregation of that is the situation that's really not acceptable," he told a news conference. "I believe a little more progress was made today and we'll just have to keep working on it."
The US troop transfer had been expected later in the year, but alliance officials said battles with resurgent guerrillas in the south showed the urgent need to pool British, Dutch and Canadian troops under NATO with separate US forces.
The Taliban resurgence has soured relations between Kabul and Islamabad, crucial allies in the US-led war on terrorism that are both battling Islamist militants.
Afghanistan and Pakistan have agreed to tighten their degree of security cooperation and to hold meetings of tribal leaders to encourage them to go after militants, Afghanistan's ambassador in Washington said on Thursday.
Ambassador Said Jawad, giving details of a dinner on Wednesday at the White House that was attended by the presidents of the US, Afghanistan and Pakistan, said Pakistan had agreed to act against militants based on Afghan intelligence.
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