NATO to Plug Gaps

Leaders of the 26-nation bloc, including US President George W. Bush, also backed a French proposal to set up a "contact group" to coordinate action to prevent Afghanistan slipping back toward chaos.

Closer to its traditional home ground, the leaders also agreed to admit Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina to its Partnership for Peace program, a decade after the wars that ripped the Balkans apart.

The pledge on Afghanistan, announced at the end of a two-day summit in Riga, came after the United States and Britain in particular lobbied for more troops and fewer caveats on the forces in the violence-wracked country. European heavyweight states like Germany, France, Spain and Italy came under pressure to do more in southern Afghanistan, where British-led troops have faced a growing death toll in fighting against Taliban insurgents.

Chancellor Angela Merkel after the summit stressed that Germany's contribution to the Afghanistan mission was highly valued by its NATO partners. She had also once more assured alliance members that Germany would come to NATO's aid in emergencies beyond the locations where the Bundeswehr is deployed.

She added that solidarity demanded it and that it was clear "Germany wouldn't close its eyes to this solidarity."

As an example, she suggested evacuating wounded soldiers from other NATO states.

Question of credibility

NATO took command of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan in 2003. It currently comprises some 32,000 troops from 37 nations. ISAF has, however, faced increasingly fierce fighting since moving into the volatile south this year, and in September NATO's top commander US General James Jones called for 2,500 extra military personnel.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair welcomed the agreement on Afghanistan.

"Everyone accepts this is NATO's absolutely critical mission," he said. "There is complete agreement around the table that NATO's credibility is ... on the line."

But he also admitted that shortfalls remained, with military chiefs saying that so far 85-90 percent of requirements were in place.

"We have made significant progress but we still need to make those last remaining steps," Blair said.

Rapid reaction force

NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer highlighted an agreement to deploy forces to help out in emergencies.

"In an emergency ... they will support each other," he said. "That is the most fundamental demonstration of NATO's solidarity."

The NATO secretary general also confirmed that alliance leaders had supported French President Jacques Chirac's proposal to establish an Afghan "contact group." This could be along the lines of such a group set up for the Balkans in the 1990s, comprising the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia, to coordinate diplomatic and other action to resolve the conflict.

"I have been tasked ... to think about and to forward proposals on the possibility of a contact group for Afghanistan," de Hoop Scheffer added.

Overall, he said the NATO summit was good news for the people of Afghanistan, "The bottom line is that, five years after the fall of the Taliban, Afghanistan is making progress."

"Rewarded for lack of cooperation"

While Afghanistan is NATO's newest and most ambitious mission, there was also positive news on one of its older fronts, with the Partnership for Peace announcements for the three Balkan states. NATO peacekeepers have spent more than a decade in region's various countries, and the alliance is keen to point the way forward towards their eventual membership of the bloc itself.

"Taking into account the importance of long-term stability in the Western Balkans and acknowledging the progress made so far ... we have invited these three countries to join Partnership for Peace," said the NATO declaration.

Chief UN war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte criticized the invitation to the three states, her spokesman said after the summit.

"The prosecutor regrets this decision because it looks like a reward for the lack of cooperation ... with the office of the prosecutor," the spokesman, Anton Nikiforov, told reporters.

NATO leaders also decided to invite new countries to join the alliance without naming any country best placed to become a member.

"At our next summit in 2008, the alliance intends to extend further invitations to those countries who meet NATO's performance-based standards and are able to contribute to Euro-Atlantic security and stability," they said.

Also in Riga, the NATO chiefs declared "fully operational" the alliance's flagship 25,000-strong NATO Response Force (NRF). The force, to be staffed by NATO countries on a six-month rotating basis, will stand ready to be deployed within five days for combat missions, evacuations or disaster relief operations lasting for up to a month.