NATO ministers set Afghanistan priorities

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- NATO defense ministers, meeting in Slovakia, Friday agreed on priorities for Afghanistan through 2010 and a security transition concept when the time is right.

Ministers agreed the Afghan population was the core reason for NATO's presence in Afghanistan, said NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen after the meeting in Bratislava, Slovakia's capital.

The ministers also agreed to work more closely and effectively with international and Afghan partners to promote better governance, and to engage more effectively with Afghanistan's neighbors, particularly Pakistan.

"Getting consensus on these priorities will better focus our efforts and the efforts of our Afghan partners," Rasmussen said

Defense officials also agreed to a strategic concept for safely transitioning the country's security to Afghan leadership, Rasmussen said, which will allow NATO officials to define the conditions for shifting the responsibility.

The ministers "agreed that we need to start thinking about, and planning toward, progressively handing over lead security responsibility to the Afghan army and Afghan police," the secretary-general said.

"Now, let me be clear. We have not agreed to start handing over the lead," he said. "The conditions are not yet right."

Rasmussen said a NATO Training Mission in Afghanistan will beef up training of the Afghan army and police, but it needs more training team, and money to sustain growing Afghan forces.

Any transition plan must be more than military, the NATO chief said, adding that NATO officials will "demand more from the new government in Afghanistan than we saw from the last one."

"Making Afghanistan strong enough to resist terrorism means more than just a strong army and police force," Rasmussen said. "It means having a government in which the people trust, to which they are loyal. That is how to suck the oxygen away from the insurgency."