NATO-led countries to boost Afghan reconstruction

EDINBURGH - Countries with troops deployed in southern Afghanistan agreed on Friday on the need to build on military gains by boosting reconstruction and improving the lives of Afghans.

Following an eight-nation meeting, hosted by Defence Secretary Des Browne, top U.S. officials were upbeat about recent successes, including the recapture of Musa Qala from the Taliban, but said progress had to be broadened.

"There's tremendous admiration for what the military have done, what the individual soldiers are doing," U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns told reporters after the talks in the Scottish capital Edinburgh.

"There's a strong sense that the civilian side ... needs now to be elevated and expanded and made as strategically purposeful as what we see on the military side."

U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said the United States would now take the lead in drawing up a 3-5 year plan, setting out how reconstruction and development, including the bolstering of the Afghan army, could be combined with better security.

He hoped that within five years the Afghan army, which took the lead in the Musa Qala operation but still required heavy backing from British and American troops and helicopters, would be able to do the lion's share of the work.

"I think it's not an unrealistic hope," he said, adding that the Taliban couldn't win militarily, as Musa Qala had shown.

"The key is ... how do we come in behind that with the kind of civilian support, police support that, once we've driven them out, keeps them out," he said.

Friday's meeting, which drew together the Netherlands, Canada, Estonia, Romania, Denmark and Australia as well as Britain and the United States, was designed to look at ways of sharing the burden in Afghanistan, where around 40,000 troops operate under the leadership of NATO.

Some countries, including Britain and the United States, have borne a large part of the burden, both in terms of financial cost and loss of life, and there is a desire to share out some of the overall burden more broadly.

"We're going to try and look at this more creatively than perhaps we have in the past, where we've basically just been hammering on people to provide more people," said Gates.

"BURDEN SHARING"

Browne, who recently returned from a trip to Afghanistan, appeared less buoyed by the talks, but was still pleased the discussion had drawn agreement on the need to share burdens.

"Could other countries be doing more? Could we do with more? Of course we could," Browne told reporters.

"But...I'm a politician and I'm a realist and I understand the dynamics of alliances that are made up of countries with different political make-ups and governments of different types.

"Some of the governments are there as minority governments -- they have political will but not the political process."

Canada said that while some within the alliance might not be able to provide troops, they could help out in other ways.

"There are certain things that could be done that may be of a less military nature but would free up (others)... enabling them to continue in their efforts without some of the stress and strain," Defence Minister Peter MacKay told reporters.

Insurgent violence is at its highest level in Afghanistan since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban after the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States. This year has been the deadliest for British troops since the war began.

Compared to a year ago, violence overall is up 27 percent and has risen 60 percent in the southern province of Helmand, according to the U.S. military. Poppy growing, used to make heroin and to fund the insurgency, is also on the rise.

Washington and London are leading the push for an international "super envoy" to increase coordination of aid efforts and deepen and broaden Afghanistan's governance.