NATO says might need more time for Afghan expansion

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – NATO said on Thursday the expansion of
its peacekeeping force to the south of Afghanistan might not
take place until the second half of the year, later than it had
hoped.

NATO wants to raise troop levels from 9,000 to 15,000, but
the plan has been thrown into doubt by Dutch hesitation over
whether to contribute 1,200 soldiers. The expansion is key to
U.S. hopes of cutting its troop levels and easing pressure on
an army severely stretched by its commitment in Iraq.

“This (expansion) is a very complicated thing to do in
terms of force generation and actually setting up the
operation,” NATO spokesman James Appathurai told a regular
briefing.

He said earlier expectations of a deployment south early in
2006 were “perhaps overly optimistic” and that he now expected
the expansion to take place between June and September.

NATO took over the International Security Assistance Force
(ISAF) in 2003, two years after a U.S.-led coalition ousted
Afghanistan’s former Taliban rulers.

The Dutch parliament is due on February 2 to debate and
possibly vote on a cabinet decision to send more troops.

Britain and Canada are the other two main contributors to
the enlarged force, but alliance officials acknowledge it would
be hard to plug any gap left by the Dutch.

The planned expansion from NATO’s current bases in the
north, west and the capital Kabul takes it into more dangerous
territory and is seen as a key test of the 26-member alliance’s
ability to take on tough security tasks.

The move could also determine to what extent the U.S. army
can switch troops out of Afghanistan. It leads a separate
20,000-strong force called Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and
media reports say it is looking to trim that by some 2,500
soldiers.