Washington - US President Barack Obama is popular in Europe, but the world will soon find out if European affection for him his strong enough to offer more help in Afghanistan at the April 3-4 NATO summit. Obama will make his maiden voyage to Europe to discuss a host of weighty topics. He'll stop first in London for the April 2 Group of 20 summit before heading to the NATO conference April 3-4 in the French and German border towns of Strasbourg and Kehl. He'll next go to Prague for a EU summit, and then Turkey.
NATO will be celebrating its 60th anniversary during the summit, but the festivities likely won't be able to conceal deep differences over Afghanistan and European reluctance to offer substantial contributions.
The Pentagon is optimistic that the enthusiasm for Obama, which was on display when 200,000 people turned out to see him speak in Berlin during the election campaign last year, can be leveraged into more support in Afghanistan.
"President Obama is ... extraordinarily popular in Europe, and hopefully he will be able to translate some of that political capital into enhanced contributions to the efforts in Afghanistan," Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said.
Obama is widely expected to urge reluctant European counterparts for greater contributions - including troops - in Afghanistan as US commanders warn that the outcome of the war against the resurgent Taliban remains in doubt.
For years the Americans, British, Canadians, Danes and Dutch have shouldered the brunt of the heaviest fighting against the Taliban, while other allies like France, Germany, Italy and Spain have restricted their troops to peacekeeping and training missions in relatively safe areas of Afghanistan.
Some of those countries have signed off on modest troop increases but have not wavered on the restrictions that NATO commanders complain weakens their ability to react to developments on the battlefield. The dispute has continued to dog the alliance.
"Afghanistan is illustrative of the challenges facing the alliance as it comes to grips with problems which were not foreseen in the environment in which it was born six decades ago," said Jackson Janes, a US-European relations analyst at Johns Hopkins University.
Obama will be seeking consensus on a wide range of issues as the alliance moves away from the days of countering the Soviets to tackling a world where terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction now pose the biggest security threats.
But Obama will encounter a European public largely opposed to the conflict in Afghanistan, making it difficult for their leaders to extend a helping hand to the United States even with the unpopular George W Bush out of the White House.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative CDU party faces a tough re-election against the centre-left SPD, its rival and current governing partner in a delicate coalition. Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have been open to discussing the issue, but have made it clear that there are limits to what they will provide.
Germany and France each have about 3,000 troops in Afghanistan, but they are barred from participating in the heavy fighting in southern and eastern Afghanistan, where the Taliban has re- established a presence.
Obama will be arriving in Europe only days after revealing his new strategy for Afghanistan and will present it to NATO allies. The new strategy includes improving coordination between the military and civilian missions, adding 21,000 US troops there this year and a more focused fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
"We have a clear and focused goal: to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future," Obama said.
The Obama administration began a review of the situation in Afghanistan shortly after taking office, and wanted to roll out its conclusions and the new strategy before heading to the NATO gathering.
The new president regards Afghanistan as a top priority and has moved to shift US resources there by drawing down the American role in Iraq. Afghanistan has slipped further towards deterioration, in part because Pakistan has been unable to deny a safe haven for the Taliban and al-Qaeda along the border.
Obama's new plan calls for building up the civilian and diplomatic effort alongside the military expansion, and to better unify the two missions. He also opened the possibility of backing Afghan-led talks with moderate elements of the Taliban while beefing up Afghan security forces.
Shortly after taking office, Obama ordered an additional 17,000 soldiers to Afghanistan. When they arrive later this year it will raise the US presence to more then 50,000. Obama intends to draw down the US role in Iraq and shift those resources to Afghanistan.
