On Tuesday the International Institute for Strategic Studies warned that Afghanistan risked becoming a "failed state," while on Wednesday the Senlis Council thinktank warned the country was on "a precipice."
06 February 2008: AFP
LONDON (AFP) — US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday played down fears that Afghanistan could become a lost cause but admitted Washington faced a "bumpy" ride to press allies into sharing the burden there.
She made the comments shortly before arriving in London for high-level talks with her close British allies about their common drive to draft more NATO forces into crushing a resurgent Taliban in southern Afghanistan.
Alluding to ruffled feathers within the alliance, Rice said she hoped the need to "tell the truth" about mission needs would not be taken as a "desire to denigrate" contributions some allies have made.
She did not name the allies, but Germany last week rejected US appeals for sending combat troops to the south and barely disguised its irritation with the reportedly "stern" way they were made.
"We have made no secret about it that there are certain allies that are in much more dangerous parts of the country," Rice told reporters aboard the plane from Washington to London.
"And we believe very strongly there ought to be a sharing of that burden throughout the alliance," she said.
Washington has already publicly praised countries like Britain, Canada, Denmark and the Netherlands as well as non-NATO member Australia for taking on dangerous missions in Afghanistan.
Her talks here with Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Foreign Secretary David Miliband precede meetings with NATO defence and foreign ministers over the next few weeks that will culminate in an allied summit in Bucharest in April.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates will discuss the situation in the south with his counterparts in Vilnius at the end of the week, she added.
The Guardian newspaper reported Wednesday that Britain was to send a fresh force with extra firepower, including more paratroopers, to Afghanistan but this would not increase its overall deployment of around 7,700.
Defence Secretary Des Browne was to make a statement to the House of Commons during the day Wednesday.
Rice said the Bucharest summit would tackle "an assessment" for the next few years that she hopes will pave the way for Afghan security forces to hold ground captured from insurgents plus break militant links with the drug trade.
She admitted the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) was still grappling with the challenge of tackling the insurgency.
"So it's bumpy. There's a lot of maturing that the alliance is having to do to do this," she said.
The top US diplomat also played down fears aired in Washington and London in the last week that NATO may not defeat the Taliban -- more than six years after the Islamist movement and their Al-Qaeda allies were ousted from Afghanistan.
On Tuesday the International Institute for Strategic Studies warned that Afghanistan risked becoming a "failed state," while on Wednesday the Senlis Council thinktank warned the country was on "a precipice."
"The international community has invested significant time and money in President (Hamid) Karzai and his government," it said. "Unfortunately, these efforts may prove fruitless if they do not move quickly to stabilise the south and Karzai's political support base."
Rice admitted that there were "certainly challenges" but said efforts in Afghanistan were "moving forward" and said the Taliban was not a "strategic threat" to the government.
She said there was still a desire for a coordinating figure in Afghanistan after senior British diplomat Paddy Ashdown withdrew his bid for the job due to Afghan objections, adding this would likely be a European, not an American.
The talks in London were also expected to touch on Iran, Iraq and Kosovo and will be targeted by protestors opposed to Britain's close cooperation with the US.
