US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband arrived in Afghanistan today to press the case for reluctant Nato allies to share the combat burden.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at a news conference with Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband in London yesterday before they fly to Afghanistan
"Frankly, I hope there will be more troop contributions, and there need to be more Afghan forces," Ms Rice said.
She added Nato members needed to "come together to give enough military power to do what needs to be done on the front end of the counter-insurgency effort".
The United States and Britain have been urging other Nato members to share more of the combat burden in southern Afghanistan where the Taliban insurgency is strongest.
Some Nato countries are annoyed over criticism from Washington over the refusal of a number of alliance members to position their forces in the more dangerous south of Afghanistan to fight Taliban insurgents.
Germany, under its parliamentary mandate, can send only 3,500 soldiers to the less dangerous north as part of the 42,000-strong Nato mission.
That means most of the fighting against the Taliban is shouldered by Canada, Britain, the United States and the Netherlands. They want others to contribute more.