Reuters: NATO allies face new Afghan troop call

[Eugene]

NATO allies face new Afghan troop call

By Mark John

49 minutes ago

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO's top operational commander wants more troops to help crush
an expected Taliban offensive in Afghanistan but is facing widespread reluctance among
allies to come forward, alliance officials said on Tuesday.

U.S. General Bantz Craddock will present a request for three and a half extra battalions
-- the equivalent of over 2,000 troops -- at a meeting of national defense ministers in
Seville on Thursday and Friday, they said.

The United States and Britain have in past weeks announced they will send reinforcements
of the 34,000-strong NATO force. But Craddock, who took over as NATO's Supreme Allied
Commander Europe in December, sees the need for more.

"It is absolutely expected he will make recommendations and that he will buttonhole
individual defense ministers," a senior U.S. official said of the talks in the Spanish city.

-snip-

Full article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070206/wl_nm/afghan_nato_dc

(Reuters)

Italy protests to U.S., allies over Afghanistan
06 Feb 2007 19:02:31 GMT
Source: Reuters

ROME, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Italy protested to the United States and five other allies
on Tuesday for publishing a letter in a newspaper calling for greater support for
the NATO mission in Afghanistan, of which Italy is a member.

A statement said Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema had written a letter expressing
his "surprise and disapproval" to ambassadors from the United States, Britain,
Canada, Australia, Netherlands and Romania over the letter.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L06120447.htm