By David Brunnstrom BRUSSELS, Jan 20 (Reuters) - European states will likely offer only a lukewarm response to calls by Barack Obama for more troops for Afghanistan, testing ties with the new U.S. president early in his administration. Obama has committed to send more U.S. troops to try to turn the tide of the Taliban insurgency. One of the first decisions he faces after taking office will be on a Pentagon proposal for an increase of up to 30,000 over the next 12-18 months. Washington now has more than 33,000 troops in Afghanistan. The European allies have 27,000 troops in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force and small numbers of special forces in a separate U.S.-led anti-terrorism force. Analysts say Europe is caught between a wish to please Obama, and a reluctance to risk soldiers' lives for a mission which its leaders acknowledge as vital, but which in public opinion is often lumped together with the unpopular Iraq war. Germany faces a politically sensitive time before elections later this year, while France has long complained its troops are already overstretched in missions from Kosovo to Africa. Other European nations have soldiers tied up in international missions such as the U.N. security operation in Lebanon. One senior European diplomat said European capitals had little doubt Obama would urge them to send more troops and lift many of the existing restrictions -- known as "caveats" on where they can be deployed and what they can do. "More difficult to answer is how the Europeans will respond. Initial speculations are not fantastically positive, but when you get to first round of meetings between Obama and his European counterparts, that may change. It's hard to say." "FREELOADING"? The pressure has been gradually mounting for months. After Obama's election last year, NATO's top commander of operations, General John Craddock, explicitly said he hoped that a new U.S. push to get Afghanistan on track would also encourage allies to commit more forces. NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer joined that call this week and close U.S. ally Britain, which has the second biggest foreign force in Afghanistan, has urged an end to what it called "freeloading" on the backs of the Americans. However at NATO talks last week to raise troops to protect presidential elections later this year, only Finland and Germany offered more -- and those for the relatively safe north. The Finnish and German offers will amount only to hundreds. Expectations within NATO of big commitments are being scaled down. Recognising the difficulties in persuading European states to send more troops, de Hoop Scheffer said allies should at least offer more assistance for development and reconstruction. At a minimum, NATO officials want to see European Union countries honour their commitments in vital areas such as police training and to step up support for U.N. development efforts. Despite taking on the task of police reform, EU states have not yet sent all the trainers promised and left the bulk of the cost to Washington. Some EU trainers had "no transport, no armoured vehicles and no money", one NATO official complained. "This is a critical mission and as big a hole as we have in the overall effort. We can't ask the Americans to do it all." Analysts and NATO officials said European capitals must convince public opinion of the need for success in a country in a volatile region of rival nuclear powers that is crucial to Western energy security, and that the popularity of Obama in Europe gave them a platform to do that. But Michael O'Hanlon of Washington's Brookings Institution think tank saw little hope for more than a 10 percent increase in European troop numbers, and said that would not go down well the other side of the Atlantic. "The European rationale for why it's hard to do more will not be met with a great deal of American sympathy -- and will especially fail to impress American voters, who will be disappointed that Obama's style of leadership does not elicit more genuine burden-sharing," he said. Bob Jackson of London's Chatham House think tank said that in turn could lead to fresh U.S. disillusionment with NATO. "If the Germans, the Spanish, the Italians, the French aren't going to find a cooperative strategy with the United States, what's the point of keeping NATO? The United States will just go it alone," he said. (Editing by Mark John)
ATTENTION EDITORS - REUTERS WOULD LIKE TO DRAW YOUR ATTENTION TO AN EXCLUSIVE SERIES OF PICTURES, KAB20 - KAB26 MOVED BETWEEN 1450 GMT AND 1500 GMT ON JANUARY 17, 2009 In ...
Afghanistan
