US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday played down fears that Afghanistan could become a lost cause but admitted Washington faced a "bumpy" ride to press allies into sharing the burden there.
She made the comments shortly before arriving in London for high-level talks with her close British allies about their common drive to draft more NATO forces into crushing a resurgent Taliban in southern Afghanistan.
Alluding to ruffled feathers within the alliance, Rice said she hoped the need to "tell the truth" about mission needs would not be taken as a "desire to denigrate" contributions allies have made.
She did not name the allies, but Germany last week rejected US appeals for sending combat troops to the south and barely disguised its irritation with the reportedly "stern" way they were made.
"We have made no secret about it that there are certain allies that are in much more dangerous parts of the country," Rice told reporters aboard the plane from Washington to London. "And we believe very strongly there ought to be a sharing of that burden throughout the alliance."
Her talks in London with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Foreign Secretary David Miliband precede meetings with NATO defense and foreign ministers over the next few weeks that will culminate in an allied summit in Bucharest in April.
US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates will discuss the situation with his counterparts in Vilnius at the end of the week, she said.
The Guardian newspaper reported yesterday that Britain was to send a fresh force with extra firepower to Afghanistan but this would not increase its overall deployment of around 7,700. British Defence Secretary Des Browne was to make a statement to the House of Commons yesterday.
Rice also played down fears that NATO may not defeat the Taliban. On Tuesday, the International Institute for Strategic Studies warned that Afghanistan risked becoming a "failed state," while yesterday the Senlis Council think tank warned the country was on "a precipice."
"The international community has invested significant time and money in President [Hamid] Karzai and his government," it said. "Unfortunately, these efforts may prove fruitless if they do not move quickly to stabilize the south and Karzai's political support base."
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