(Recasts with more quotes) BRUSSELS, March 26 (Reuters) - The United States urged European countries on Monday to provide more troops and aid for Afghanistan, forecasting an international presence in the war-shattered country for "many, many years" to come. U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said Washington was grateful to European countries such as Britain, Estonia, Romania and the Netherlands which have troops operating in combat zones in Afghanistan, but said more were needed. "There is a need for a greater number of troops from Europe, for a greater degree of flexibility in how those troops are allowed to operate," Burns told reporters in Brussels. "The caveats that limit the tactical deployments of troops inside the country, in our view, should be lifted. All states should lift them and there should be additional economic and humanitarian aid," he said. Burns said both NATO and the European Union, a major donor to Afghanistan which is due to launch a small police training mission there this year, should expect to remain there for years. "We are going to have to be in it for the long-term... This is not a two- or three-year effort. I think all of us will be there many, many years from now," he told a conference later. He recalled how long it had taken to restore peace to the Balkans after the 1992-95 war. NATO handed over peacekeeping duties to the European Union in Bosnia in 2004, and the EU is now gradually winding down its presence there. The United States provides about 27,000 of the 45,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, some in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and the rest under a separate U.S.-led coalition. Most European countries have for months resisted U.S. calls to deploy troops in southern Afghanistan, the heartland of the Taliban insurgents, where the heaviest fighting has taken place. Last year saw the worst violence in Afghanistan since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban from power in late 2001. More than 4,000 people died in fighting in 2006, including about 1,000 civilians. Fighting is expected to be heavy in 2007. The Taliban have said they have prepared thousands of suicide bombers. Burns said there were signs in past weeks that neighbouring Pakistan was doing more to prevent Taliban and other insurgents moving freely across its porous border with Afghanistan, but called on Islamabad to be more consistent in its efforts.
