NATO, Britain stress Afghan handover plans
Posted: 18 November 2009 0455 hrs

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EDINBURGH: The head of NATO said Tuesday he expected "substantially more forces" for Afghanistan to be pledged within weeks, but only to help speed up handing over security responsibility to Afghan forces.

His speech came after British Prime Minister Gordon Brown offered to host an international conference on Afghanistan in London in January, which he said could set a timeframe for a gradual security handover from 2010.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he expected an increase in international forces to be agreed "in a few weeks" but underlined that the ultimate goal was to move from a combat to a support role, starting next year.

US President Barack Obama is expected to announce his Afghan strategy review soon after his return from Asia next week, including whether to ramp up troop levels.

Opinion polls in many NATO countries have shown flagging support for the war eight years in.

In a speech to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Edinburgh, Rasmussen said: "people should be reassured that soon there will be new momentum.

"And we have many reasons to be more optimistic. We will progressively be handing over more and more lead responsibility to the Afghans themselves - this is the key element of our approach that will be clear from the decisions we will be taking in the near future."

He said he expected the alliance to settle on "a counter-insurgency approach, with substantially more forces" focused on protecting Afghans and their development.

He added: "We can, and should, start next year to hand over more lead responsibility for security.

"We will do this in a coordinated way, where conditions permit, and this will allow us to progressively move into a support role."

His comments echo proposals by Brown, who suggested late Monday that a timeframe for handing over security district by district, starting as early as 2010, could be drawn up in the new year.

Rasmussen said the idea was "realistic and achievable" but "cannot be done on the cheap" and without a troop surge.

He warned that if NATO quit Afghanistan, "Al-Qaeda would be back in a flash", setting up a base for global terror attacks and sparking instability in the whole Central Asian region.

Anyone who thought otherwise was "not living in the real world", he added.

Some 257 parliamentarians from the 28 NATO member states are meeting in the Scottish capital to scrutinise the alliance's strategies and thrash out policy recommendations.

Delegates from other countries, such as Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Israel, Afghanistan, Australia, Japan and South Korea, were also present.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband told the conference that a surge in troop numbers in Afghanistan had to be matched with a renewed push on the political front.

He said the allies had to improve governance standards in the Afghan provinces, divide the Taliban insurgency by bringing wavering elements into the political fold, and get the country's neighbours to play a greater role.

"This is not a war without end," Miliband said.

"We will succeed in Afghanistan only when our military resources and development systems are aligned behind a clear political strategy."

The speeches drew support from Ahmad Farid, an Afghan parliamentary delegate invited to attend.

"We really hope that the things said should be put in practice," the Kapisa Province lawmaker told AFP.

"We agree with increasing the soldiers in Afghanistan but... we need the reconstruction of Afghanistan, more talking with the opposite side.

"If we leave the war, they (the Taliban) won't leave us."

He added: "To bring peace in Afghanistan is to bring peace all over the world."

- AFP/yb