West not winning in Afghanistan: Biden

10 Mar 2009, REUTERS

BRUSSELS: US Vice President Joe Biden appealed to NATO allies on Tuesday to help the United States tackle worsening security in Afghanistan, saying the alliance was struggling to deal with a threat to the West as a whole.

"The deteriorating situation in the region poses a security threat not just to the United States but to every single nation round this table," Biden told representatives of the 26-country military pact during a visit to Brussels.

"We are not now winning the war, but the war is far from lost," he told a news conference after three hours of talks.

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer called on NATO to boost efforts before Afghan elections due in August. "It is important that this alliance delivers in the short-term," he told the same news conference.

US-led forces drove the Taliban from power in Kabul in response to the Sept 11, 2001, attacks on US targets planned by Osama bin Laden from bases in Afghanistan.

Western powers are concerned not only by the Taliban's advances in Afghanistan but also by its influence in Pakistan, where Islamic militants have disrupted NATO's supply convoys to Afghanistan and are securing concessions from the government in Islamabad.

Biden said US President Barack Obama wanted to consult with allies on a strategy review and that Washington would "expect everyone to keep whatever commitments were made in arriving at that joint strategy". However, a US official said the trip was not designed to push for more troop pledges.

Obama last month approved the deployment of 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan as Washington and other NATO nations try to stabilise the country, where insurgent violence is at its highest since the Taliban were toppled.

Common Threats

There are currently some 70,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, of which the United States supplies 38,000.

Biden said his trip to Brussels was intended to listen to the United States' allies, who faced calls by the former Bush administration to deploy more troops in what often became noisy transatlantic slanging matches over strategy.

"When we consult ... we get the type of consensus that our political leadership needs," Biden said. "Absent that kind of cohesion, it will be incredibly more difficult to meet the common threats we are going to face."

A senior US administration official said European nations could offer non-military assistance including training of the still weak Afghan police force.

"We are aware obviously that not every country is able to contribute more troops," said the official. Biden was expected to raise the issue with EU officials later on Tuesday.

The European Union runs a programme for training the Afghan police but has failed so far to meet a promise last year to double the number of trainers.