Vilnius - A debate over national contributions to NATO's Afghan mission dominated a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Vilnius on Thursday, with member states as yet unwilling to propose concrete solutions to the problem. "We are making progress, but I want to see filled to 100 per cent the kind of forces the military advise us that we should have. We are not there yet and we have to do better," NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said at the end of the first day of talks.
The two-day meeting had been due to focus on Kosovo on Thursday, with NATO ministers meeting their counterparts from the 10 non-NATO states who have troops in the KFOR peacekeeping mission in Kosovo.
That discussion ran relatively smoothly, with all concerned agreeing that they should stay in the Balkans until the volatile region is stable.
"All participants showed their commitment to KFOR to protect the majority and the minority, all Kosovo citizens without exception, and create a climate of security and stability in the difficult times in this region," Scheffer said.
But the debate over manning levels in Afghanistan dominated proceedings, with the countries whose soldiers are most engaged in combat in the south - the US and Canada - urging other member states to do more in that area, without immediate results.
"What we want to see is more of a one-for-all approach, that includes of course burden sharing in the south," Canada's Defence Minister Peter Mackay said.
Ahead of the meeting, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates had warned that NATO could turn into a "two-tiered alliance, in which you have some allies willing to fight and die to protect people's security, and others who are not."
Officials were quick to play down that warning, insisting that there was no danger of a damaging split developing.
Dutch Defence Minister Eimert van Middelkoop said that there was a "healthy tension" over the issue.
And Gates himself later used more diplomatic language, urging allies to be creative and suggesting that nations unwilling to send troops into combat could lend equipment to the willing or take over routine jobs from combat troops.
While the ministers made no new pledges of troops to the Afghan mission, they indicated that they might well do so at or before a summit of NATO heads of government on April 2-4.
"The current reflection process will come to a climax in Bucharest in early April," French Defence Minister Herve Morin said, urging Canada to be patient until then.
They also stressed the successes they had achieved, with Scheffer pointing out that troop levels in Afghanistan had risen from 6,000 to over 43,000 in the last two years.
Six million Afghan children - one-third of them girls - are going to school, 82 per cent of Afghans have access to health care, and the country has a democratic government, Scheffer said.
"A country which in 2001 was basically in the Middle Ages under the horrible Taliban regime is well on its way to reconstruction and development," he said.
The ministers called for a greater effort to convince their own voters that the mission was worthwhile and to make other global organizations and the Afghan government play a stronger role.
"The Afghan people own their own nation, it's up to their government to be responsible in the fight against corruption and narcotics and the fight for law and order," Scheffer stressed.
"Afghanistan can't be solved by military efforts alone. It's like waves on a beach: each time a wave comes in it covers the sand, but when the wave retreats the sand comes back the same," Morin added.
The ministers are due on Friday to hold talks with non-NATO states with troops in Afghanistan, together with representatives of the European Union, United Nations and World Bank.
