By Mark John and Paul Taylor BRUSSELS, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Britain and the Netherlands urged the European Union on Monday to take responsibility for training Afghan police to help an embattled NATO peacekeeping force, but EU foreign ministers postponed a decision. A spokesman for the Finnish EU presidency said it had deferred a move to send a more detailed fact-finding mission to Kabul after France voiced scepticism about a wider EU role. The European Commission's external relations chief said such a training role should eventually be possible, and other EU officials suggested the delay was only technical. But it means the EU may move little further before U.S. President George W. Bush and allied leaders hold a NATO summit centred on Afghanistan in Riga, Latvia, on Nov. 28-29. British Defence Secretary Des Browne told a meeting of defence ministers that the EU should work more effectively with international partners on the ground. "There is scope for the EU to reinforce and reinvigorate civilian work on the rule of law in Afghanistan," he said, according to a British statement. Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot told reporters: "We are doing it in Iraq so why shouldn't we do it in Afghanistan? We are in favour of a greater role." External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said the EU had already sent a fact-finding mission to Afghanistan in September to study the needs of the police and justice system and planned a second trip to work out a more detailed plan. "I think the member states in the end will be ready to accept that," she told reporters. FRANCE CASTS DOUBT But French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, whose country is often resistant to U.S. pressure for closer EU-NATO cooperation, cast doubt on the usefulness of such a mission. "We (the EU) already have a major role in Afghanistan. What strikes me as most urgent is to ensure good coordination of the actions we are conducting there," she told a news conference. NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has put pressure on the EU ahead of the Nov. 28-29 summit to shoulder more of the civilian burden in Afghanistan while the U.S.-led alliance battles resistance from Taliban fighters. EU officials rejected the idea that the fate of Afghanistan hinged on a few European police trainers going to Kabul, noting Germany, Italy and Spain were already involved in such work.
