NATO defense ministers have come under increased US pressure to muster more troops for the alliance mission in Afghanis-tan to bolster an offensive against Taliban strongholds when the snow melts this spring.
But several European allies resisted the appeal for a stronger deployment, with France and Germany questioning the wisdom of sending more soldiers.
"When the Russians were in Afghanistan, they had 100,000 soldiers there and they did not win," German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung told reporters on Thursday.
NATO's new top commander, US General John Craddock, pres-ented ministers with a plan to "rebalance" the force of 35,000, using the more mobile combat units in the southern and eastern regions along the border with Pakistan where combat is expected to be most intense.
Allied officials said Craddock was seeking up to 2,500 extra troops in addition to reinforcements recently announced by the US and Britain, which supply over half of the soldiers in the force.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates appealed for allies to quickly come forward with more troops so the NATO force can take the fight to the Taliban after the thaw.
"Nations should fulfill all of the commitments they have made and I hope they will do so promptly so that they can have some impact on the spring offensive in the next few months," he told a news conference, adding that the allied push could "significantly disrupt" the Taliban's fighting ability.
Attending his first NATO meeting since replacing Donald Rumsfeld in December, Gates played down talk of a rift.
"The level of commitment from members of the alliance actually is extraordinary," he said.
However the reluctance in particular of Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Turkey to provide more combat troops has irked nations on the front lines.
"More countries should take responsibility," Danish Defense Minister Soeren Gade said.
"If we do not send more soldiers to Afghanistan there is a risk that we may fail," Gade said.
Denmark has 400 troops mostly serving in the dangerous south alongside the US, Britain, Canada, the Netherlands, Romania, Estonia and non-NATO member Australia.
The meeting in southern Spain produced some smaller offers from other nations.
Lithuania, which already has 130 troops in Afghanistan, offered to send an unspecified number of special forces, helping to fill a key shortfall. Germany, Italy and Spain said they would send more jets and aircraft, but made no mention of troop numbers.
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