Afghan role dominates Nato talks

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Nato defence ministers are holding a second day of talks, after the alliance secured more resources for efforts to provide security in Afghanistan.

It is thought that up to nine nations will offer more troops to help train the Afghan army, so it can take over security responsibilities.

Ministers will also discuss the planned US missile shield and reassess the role of an elite rapid reaction force.

Russian Foreign Minister Anatoly Serdyukov will join the talks later.

They come a few days after the US offered to delay activating its missile defence shield, parts of which are to be installed in Poland and the Czech Republic.

The move has been seen as an attempt to calm Russian fears that it will undermine its own missile deterrent force.

Reducing the burden

The BBC's Caroline Wyatt, who is attending the meeting in the Dutch coastal town of Noordwijk, says Nato understands Afghanistan is a big test of its resolve and it cannot afford to fail.

Officials at the meeting said on Wednesday that as many as nine nations had offered more input to the Nato mission.

<a class="bodl" href="#table">See how Nato members' contributions compare</a>

Among the new offers were two by France and Germany for military instructors.

Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said they now had 90% of what they needed and but there were still shortages.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai reiterated the need to give more responsibility to the Afghans themselves.

"We must... concentrate on reducing the burden from the international community and adding more of that to the shoulders of Afghanistan by training the Afghan army... by improving the Afghan police and by adding to the strength of Afghan institutions," he said at a news conference in London with UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

The exact shape of any new Nato contributions to the 41,100-strong International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) could become clear next month, during a meeting at the alliance's headquarters in Belgium.

Our correspondent says commanders of US, UK, Canadian and Dutch troops have been unhappy about bearing the lion's share of fighting a revived Taleban.

The US has an additional 7,000 troops serving in Afghanistan outside the Isaf framework.

National caveats currently prevent some countries - such as Germany, Italy, France and Spain - from either fighting, or from being based in the more dangerous provinces.

Nato's secretary general said he would float the idea of more national contingent rotations around the country, although he stressed it was a long-term idea.

Six years since the toppling of the Taleban regime, there is an air of concern, if not crisis, about the 38-nation mission to Afghanistan, say analysts.

As well as a Taleban fightback and record opium poppy crops, rebuilding has gone more slowly than expected, while civilian and military casualties have tested public support for the mission.

<h2 class="data416">International Security Assistance Force</h2><h3 class="data416">Troop contributing nations</h3> No. of troops No. of troops Albania 138 Italy 2395 Australia 907 Latvia 97 Austria 3 Lithuania 195 Azerbaijan 22 Luxembourg 9 Belgium 368 Macedonia 129 Bulgaria 401 Netherlands 1516 Canada 1730 New Zealand 138 Croatia 199 Norway 508 Czech Rep. 233 Poland 937 Denmark 454 Portugal 162 Estonia 128 Romania 536 Finland 85 Slovakia 70 France 1073 Slovenia 42 Georgia - Spain 715 Germany 3155 Sweden 340 Greece 146 Switzerland 2 Hungary 225 Turkey 1220 Iceland 11 United Kingdom 7740 Ireland 7 United States 15108 ISAF total 41144 National Support elements 4140 Source: Nato