BRUSSELS, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- America's European allies are under pressure to do more in Afghanistan after U.S. President Barack Obama announced he would send 30,000 additional forces to the war-torn country.
Leaders in Europe welcomed the U.S. troop surge, but they have been slow to send in their own reinforcements.
Washington wants its allies to provide between 5,000 and 10,000 additional troops to defeat the Taliban, boost reconstruction efforts and speed up police and military training so that Afghans can take care of the country themselves.
However, because of rising casualties, the Afghanistan mission is becoming increasingly unpopular in Europe. NATO officials hope that around 20 countries will nevertheless send reinforcements.
There has been much speculation on how many troops Italy will send after Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi vowed to back the mission.
Italian Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa called reports of 1,500 additional Italian troops "hypothetical."
"It is a figure at the top end of the scale, and one that in no way have we settled on," he told the Corriere della Sera daily. Observers say Italy will likely send around 1,000 reinforcements on top of the 2,800 soldiers already there.
Britain, the second-largest contributor, has pledged to send some 500 additional troops, with central and Eastern European countries Poland (600), Slovakia (250) and Georgia (900) also sending more soldiers.
Germany, which has 4,250 troops on the ground, has indicated it is willing to take on more police training responsibilities but for now has refused to commit deploying more soldiers.
The same goes for France. President Nicolas Sarkozy also said he would boost French police training efforts. Both Germany and France are ahead of major strategy reviews for Afghanistan and might send additional soldiers later this year.
France and Germany will have to do more to counter the planned withdrawal in 2010 and 2011 of some 5,000 troops from Canada and the Netherlands. NATO officials have expressed hope that both nations might keep some of the troops in the country as police and military trainers.
For NATO, the Afghanistan campaign is crucial. Security has deteriorated in Afghanistan since 2006 after the Taliban had been able to regroup and gather strength in nearby Pakistan. The number of roadside attacks, suicide bombings and skirmishes has increased ever since.
"This is our fight together, we must finish it together," NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said. "At this very important moment, NATO must demonstrate its unity and strength one again. It means in concrete terms that all allies and partners in our mission must do more."
