Nato allies pledge extra troops to Afghan war
Gordon Brown, Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy at the Nato summit
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Saturday, 04, Apr 2009 04:43
A temporary increase in troop numbers to the Afghanistan war has been agreed at the Nato summit in Strasbourg.
Ten countries, including Britain, have agreed to deploy more troops during the country's presidential elections this summer.
Gordon Brown told journalists at the summit that "hundreds" more troops would be sent to Afghanistan. Germany, Spain and Portugal are among the other countries committing extra troops.
But the prime minister said he would not provide exact numbers until addressing parliament at the end of its Easter recess.
According to a statement from the White House the extra troops add up to about 3,000.
"There has got to be real burden-sharing," Mr Brown said at the conclusion of the two-day summit, hosted jointly by France and Germany.
"There has been real progress that countries who were not previously considering sending extra troops have been convinced that it's exactly the right thing to do."
The summit, which has already confirmed Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen as the alliance's new secretary-general, was Barack Obama's debut alongside Nato leaders.
The United States president, who is sending up to 31,000 extra American troops to Afghanistan in the summer, had wanted permanent commitments from other countries.
Yesterday, his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy categorically ruled out such a move on his part, but Mr Brown said Mr Obama's first Nato summit had still been an "extraordinary success".
Foreign secretary David Miliband, speaking beside the prime minister, said there had been a "palpable Obama effect".
"President Obama has shown that when he said leading involved listening, he really meant it," Mr Miliband claimed.
"Leading and listening, far from being opposed to each other, are actually essential complements."
Earlier on Saturday leaders crossed into France from Germany on a footbridge over the Rhine in a symbol of the peace in Europe Nato has helped to preserve.
But in Strasbourg, where the summit is being held today, tear gas was deployed against protestors, leading to dozens of arrests.
More than 70,000 foreign troops are in Afghanistan, mostly operating under Nato's International Security Assistance Force.
At least 1,200 coalition troops have died during the eight-year war against the Taliban.