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Bush calls for more Afghan troops | Bush calls for more Afghan troops |
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US President George W Bush has urged Nato allies to send more troops to Afghanistan ahead of the alliance's biggest-ever summit in Romania. | US President George W Bush has urged Nato allies to send more troops to Afghanistan ahead of the alliance's biggest-ever summit in Romania. |
Speaking in Bucharest, Mr Bush said "we cannot afford to lose Afghanistan... we must win". | Speaking in Bucharest, Mr Bush said "we cannot afford to lose Afghanistan... we must win". |
Romania and France are due to send more troops and Mr Bush asked other nations "to step forward". | Romania and France are due to send more troops and Mr Bush asked other nations "to step forward". |
During the summit, Mr Bush is expected to say Nato membership must be open to any European democracy that seeks it. | During the summit, Mr Bush is expected to say Nato membership must be open to any European democracy that seeks it. |
The Nato-led force in Afghanistan currently numbers 47,000 troops from 40 nations. Commanders have called for a further 10,000 soldiers to be deployed. | |
Nato allies want the Bucharest summit, starting later on Wednesday, to send the message that it will stay in Afghanistan for as long as necessary. | |
'On our soil' | |
In a keynote speech hours before the two-day summit of the 26-nation alliance, Mr Bush said: "As [French] President Sarkozy put it in London last week, we cannot afford to lose Afghanistan. | |
"Whatever the cost, however difficult, we cannot afford it, we must win. | "Whatever the cost, however difficult, we cannot afford it, we must win. |
"If we do not defeat the terrorists in Afghanistan, we will face them on our soil." | "If we do not defeat the terrorists in Afghanistan, we will face them on our soil." |
Mr Bush arrived in the Romanian capital, Bucharest, late on Tuesday. He has since left to meet Romania's President Traian Basescu in the Black Sea resort of Constanta. | |
UKRAINIANS IN NATO MISSIONS Kosovo: 184 soldiersAfghanistan: 3 soldiersNato training mission in IraqMediterranean patrols in 2007 | |
He has said he will press the alliance to support Membership Action Plans for both Ukraine and Georgia. | |
Russia is fiercely opposed to the eastward expansion of Nato, and has warned of a crisis if Ukraine tries to join. | |
The US president, who will meet Russia's President Vladimir Putin for talks on Sunday, said he had been assured by other Nato members that Russia would not have a veto on Kiev's possible admission. | |
Grigory Karasin, Russia's deputy foreign minister, said Ukrainian membership of the Western alliance would "entail a deep crisis in Russian-Ukrainian relations". | |
France and Germany, backed by several smaller west European allies, oppose Ukrainian membership. | |
And opinion polls in Ukraine suggest there is little public support there for its admission to the alliance. | |
Open door | |
Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told the BBC he supported Nato membership for the former Soviet states. | |
"There's no way that the door will be locked for Ukraine and Georgia," he said. | |
"The Nato Treaty very clearly states that European democracies fulfilling their criteria for Nato membership are welcome." | |
Mr de Hoop Scheffer said he understood Russian concerns but added that the "final decision will be taken by the allies and not by anybody else". | |
Answering a US call for more contributions to fight the Taleban and its al-Qaeda allies, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on Tuesday that France would send "several hundred" more soldiers to Afghanistan. | |
But he said France would oppose offering eventual Nato membership to Ukraine and Georgia, saying it would upset the balance of power between Europe and Russia. | |
"We think that it is not a good answer to the balance of power within Europe and between Europe and Russia," he said. | |
The West, he added, had to make a strategic choice because "this crisis will also affect in the most adverse way pan-European security too". |