HELSINKI (Reuters) - Australia urged more European nations on Tuesday to let their troops move into southern Afghanistan to help fight a resurgent Taliban, but said its own commandos' deployment there was due to end shortly.
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European states with troops in northern Afghanistan could help by changing their rules of engagement from purely defensive operations so that they could confront the Taliban in the south, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said.
"I don't want to see anyone die, but we need to share the burden of responsibility and share the difficult tasks as best we can," Downer told a news conference on a visit to Finland.
Speaking hours after one Italian NATO soldier was killed and two were wounded by a roadside bomb near Kabul, Downer said the situation in Afghanistan had worsened in recent months:
"But the toughest area is the south and I think we all need to think about how best we can make a contribution there."
He said he was asking for European troops to take more of the load in the south, where NATO's extension of its campaign to restore law and order has met fierce resistance from Taliban fighters.
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer is pressing countries such as Spain, Italy and Germany to lift restrictions which stop their forces from leaving relatively calm areas in north and west Afghanistan.
NATO's top operational commander, U.S. Marine Gen. James Jones, has called for reinforcements and more equipment for troops in the south.
NATO officials in Brussels said alliance defense ministers would examine a military proposal on Thursday for NATO to take over command very soon of all peacekeepers in Afghanistan.
In east Afghanistan this would largely involve putting under NATO command some 10,000 mostly U.S. troops already based there, which would help plug shortfalls in troops and equipment and improve the airlift capability of NATO forces as a whole.
HEAVY BURDEN FOR CANADA
Downer said the limits imposed by some nations meant that in the south a disproportionate load fell on forces from the United States, Britain and Canada.
He said the Canadians, who provide the backbone of the NATO operation in Kandahar and have lost more than 30 soldiers, were carrying a particularly heavy operational burden.
Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja told the news conference his country, which like Australia is not a NATO member, was committed to Afghanistan.
"We will stay committed there. We see the need for a long-term commitment and hope that the resources of the international community are enough to do the job," he said.
Finland has 106 military and civilian staff in the country, mainly in Kabul and the north.
Australia has about 500 soldiers in Afghanistan, including 192 from the elite SAS, serving alongside Dutch troops in the southern province of Uruzgan. The SAS troops have begun withdrawing and will be gone within two weeks.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard, speaking in Canberra, said the SAS soldiers had already served in Iraq, Afghanistan and East Timor and their deployment was due to end.
"We have to be careful that we don't ask our special forces to carry all of the burden all of the time," Howard told reporters on the sidelines of a security conference.
Australia, a close U.S. ally, was one of the first nations to commit troops to the U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan to oust the Taliban and hunt down al Qaeda after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Australia has repeatedly urged others not to "cut and run" from Afghanistan and Iraq.
To do so would risk "the most extraordinary triumph for the terrorists and the most historic of defeats for the West in its determination to try to defeat terrorism," Downer said.
"We would rue that day," he added.
(Additional reporting by Rob Taylor in Canberra)
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European states with troops in northern Afghanistan could help by changing their rules of engagement from purely defensive operations so that they could confront the Taliban in the south, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said.
"I don't want to see anyone die, but we need to share the burden of responsibility and share the difficult tasks as best we can," Downer told a news conference on a visit to Finland.
Speaking hours after one Italian NATO soldier was killed and two were wounded by a roadside bomb near Kabul, Downer said the situation in Afghanistan had worsened in recent months:
"But the toughest area is the south and I think we all need to think about how best we can make a contribution there."
He said he was asking for European troops to take more of the load in the south, where NATO's extension of its campaign to restore law and order has met fierce resistance from Taliban fighters.
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer is pressing countries such as Spain, Italy and Germany to lift restrictions which stop their forces from leaving relatively calm areas in north and west Afghanistan.
NATO's top operational commander, U.S. Marine Gen. James Jones, has called for reinforcements and more equipment for troops in the south.
NATO officials in Brussels said alliance defense ministers would examine a military proposal on Thursday for NATO to take over command very soon of all peacekeepers in Afghanistan.
In east Afghanistan this would largely involve putting under NATO command some 10,000 mostly U.S. troops already based there, which would help plug shortfalls in troops and equipment and improve the airlift capability of NATO forces as a whole.
HEAVY BURDEN FOR CANADA
Downer said the limits imposed by some nations meant that in the south a disproportionate load fell on forces from the United States, Britain and Canada.
He said the Canadians, who provide the backbone of the NATO operation in Kandahar and have lost more than 30 soldiers, were carrying a particularly heavy operational burden.
Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja told the news conference his country, which like Australia is not a NATO member, was committed to Afghanistan.
"We will stay committed there. We see the need for a long-term commitment and hope that the resources of the international community are enough to do the job," he said.
Finland has 106 military and civilian staff in the country, mainly in Kabul and the north.
Australia has about 500 soldiers in Afghanistan, including 192 from the elite SAS, serving alongside Dutch troops in the southern province of Uruzgan. The SAS troops have begun withdrawing and will be gone within two weeks.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard, speaking in Canberra, said the SAS soldiers had already served in Iraq, Afghanistan and East Timor and their deployment was due to end.
"We have to be careful that we don't ask our special forces to carry all of the burden all of the time," Howard told reporters on the sidelines of a security conference.
Australia, a close U.S. ally, was one of the first nations to commit troops to the U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan to oust the Taliban and hunt down al Qaeda after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Australia has repeatedly urged others not to "cut and run" from Afghanistan and Iraq.
To do so would risk "the most extraordinary triumph for the terrorists and the most historic of defeats for the West in its determination to try to defeat terrorism," Downer said.
"We would rue that day," he added.
(Additional reporting by Rob Taylor in Canberra)