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Bush talks Kosovo, Afghanistan with NATO alliance chief

US President George W. Bush and the head of NATO were expected to continue talks at the president's Texas ranch yesterday, focused largely on fighting a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan.

On Sunday, Bush drove a pickup truck to meet NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer's helicopter as it landed at the president's sprawling ranch here.

Discussions were expected to cover the recent strong showing by insurgents and the high number of civilian deaths in Afghanistan, which threaten to erode support for US and NATO troops backing the Kabul government.

Bush was expected to seek reinforced allied commitments to participating in the US "war on terror" campaign in Afghanistan, if not Iraq.

Also likely on the agenda were Kosovo, NATO expansion and the US effort to position parts of a strategic anti-missile defense system in central Europe -- objected to by Moscow -- the White House said.

About 37,000 NATO-led troops are in Afghanistan, including 15,000 US soldiers. Another 12,000 US soldiers operate separately under their own command in the country.

Bush wants allies to provide more manpower and equipment and to lift restrictions some impose on their troops fighting the Taliban.

Clashes this year have generated some 1,500 deaths, most of them rebels but also scores of civilians and nearly 60 foreign soldiers, estimates showed.

On Sunday, a man strapped with explosives blew himself up in a crowded market place in Gardez, 100km south of Kabul, killing at least 10 people.

The attack followed one in the northern city of Kunduz on Saturday that killed six Afghans and three German soldiers.

But concern about mounting civilian casualties has also focused on the increased use of air power by US and NATO troops.

Over the past month, Afghan officials reported 50 civilians killed in US airstrikes in fighting in the western province in Herat and 21 in south central Helmand Province.

The deaths have drawn criticism from Afghan President Hamid Karzai and sparked concerns among NATO members.

Last Monday, German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung said he had complained to NATO about the increasing civilian casualties.

"We must ensure that operations do not develop this way. It would not be a victory to set the [Afghan] people against us," Jung said after talks between EU defense ministers in Brussels.

"We have to be very concerned about it," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said on Sunday.

"It's tragic that in the effort to provide peace and security in a country that non-combatants, children, become killed or injured in these activities and so it's a very high priority for us," he said. "We don't want to see any erosion of support in the civilian population in Afghanistan."
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