NATO defense ministers meet to overcome transatlantic rift

VILNIUS, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Defense ministers from 26 NATO countries are gathering in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius for an informal meeting, hoping to pull the allies together, particularly in Afghanistan.

There has been fury among European capitals at U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates' recent public criticism of European allies on troop commitment to southern Afghanistan and his comments that European forces were not properly trained for the fight against the Taliban.

"I hope this meeting will improve the solidarity between the alliance members and find a solution to achieve our goals in Afghanistan and other missions," Lithuanian Defense Minister Juozas Olekas told reporters on Thursday.

NATO defense ministers will discuss the "challenging situation" confronting the ground forces in Afghanistan and make sure the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) will have the forces, resources and flexibility needed in the country, a senior NATO official said before the meeting.

NATO's mission in Afghanistan is entering its sixth year since taking over command of the ISAF. But there is no clear sign that the alliance is winning.

With a death toll of over 6,000, the year 2007 became the bloodiest since the Taliban regime was toppled by a coalition of U.S. and Afghan forces in 2001.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice admitted in London on Wednesday that NATO's mission in Afghanistan is "bumpy."

Currently all 26 NATO allies have troops in Afghanistan. But only four of them -- the United States, Canada, Britain and the Netherlands -- are fighting in the more dangerous south.

Troops from major European allies -- Germany, France, Italy and Spain -- are carrying out reconstruction and training tasks in the relatively calm north and west as well as in Kabul.

The Pentagon announced the deployment of 3,200 Marines in Afghanistan for seven months -- 2,200 of them in the south, after Washington's call for more European troops fell on deaf ears.

Gates last week wrote to each and every defense minister of the other 25 NATO countries, asking them to send more troops to Afghanistan, in order to at least refill the gap to be left by the withdrawal of the U.S. Marines in the autumn.

Gates' letter to his German counterpart, Franz Josef Jung, asking for additional German troops to fight in southern Afghanistan, was published by a German newspaper, which caused uneasiness among German citizens, who are still wary of German troops in combat activities abroad given Nazi Germany's role in World War II.

The transatlantic rift over Afghanistan prompted NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer's comments that "force generation" should as usual be kept behind closed doors.

NATO spokesman James Appathurai explained on Monday that public calls for troops obscure the progress of force generation. He said the ISAF troop level increased from 6,000 to 40,000 within a space of two years, a "steady, discernible progress" for NATO.

He said the public discussion also obscures NATO's achievements on the ground in Afghanistan and gives a "false impression of lack of solidarity" among the allies. He quickly added that his comments were not targeted at any particular NATO country.

Rice on Wednesday called for a fair sharing of the burden among NATO allies in Afghanistan.

"It's true and we've made no secret about it that there are certain allies that are in more dangerous parts of the country and we believe very strongly that there ought to be a sharing of that burden throughout the alliance," Rice said in London.

Germany announced on the eve of the defense ministers' meeting that it will send 250 more soldiers to Afghanistan, but to the north, not to the south.

Apart from geographic restrictions the allies impose on the operations of their troops, the alliance needs more troops and equipment as well as training officers for the Afghan National Army.