Nato is struggling to maintain unity over the war in Afghanistan today after the United States raised concerns over some members' troop deployments.
On a visit to troops fighting the Taliban, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice kept up the pressure on reluctant allies to share the combat burden in Afghanistan.
"Frankly, I hope there will be more troop contributions, and there needs to be more Afghan forces," Ms Rice said today.
A first round of talks among Nato defence ministers in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius yielded no formal offers of troops, although a government spokesman in Paris said France was considering a possible new deployment.
Defence Secretary Robert Gates yesterday said the alliance could split into countries that were willing to "fight and die to protect people's security and those who were not".
Nato Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer acknowledged more forces were needed to combat mounting Taliban and al-Qaeda violence, but he dismissed Mr Gates's fears that Nato could become a "two-tiered alliance" based on a country's willingness to fight.
He renewed an appeal for countries to reserve requests for reinforcements for closed-door discussions.
The Nato-led force has about 43,000 troops in Afghanistan. Canada, Britain, the United States and the Netherlands are involved in most of the fierce fighting in the south, and they want other countries to contribute more in what has become the toughest battle in Nato's 59-year history.