LEAD: NATO urges world to help foot bill for Afghan security forces

By Alexandra Mayer-Hohdahl Feb 3, 2012, 14:44 GMT

Brussels - NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Friday urged the international community to help provide long-term financing to Afghanistan's security forces, which according to France's defence minister could eventually total 230,000.

Officials from 84 countries had already pledged, during a conference in Bonn last month, their support to Afghanistan for a 'decade of transformation' after the planned 2014 withdrawal of international troops.

Rasmussen told reporters following a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Brussels on Friday that it was 'in the interest of countries in the region to see a stable and secure Afghanistan.'

'It's much better in a longer-term perspective that the Afghans take responsibility for the security themselves,' he said.

NATO is planning to have 352,000 Afghan soldiers and policemen trained by late 2012, as it works to counter the vacuum that will be created by the withdrawal of international combat troops.

But the international community will likely have to foot the bill for Afghan security forces long after that, given the country's precarious economic state and the enduring Taliban threat.

The final size of the Afghan forces, their mission and their budget is to be discussed at the next NATO summit in May, French Defence Minister Gerard Longuet said, adding that 'a force of 230,000 for a long-term army appears reasonable.'

The United States has suggested that on top of its contribution, 1.1 billion dollars would be needed annually to finance a force of that size, Longuet said - while also pointing to the amount's non-official nature and his opinion that it should be 'cut back.'

But he also noted that 'these are amounts that are within reach if there is international solidarity.'

The Afghan force's priorities have proven to be a thorny question too, with Longuet saying that NATO would like to see it focus on counter-terrorism, while Kabul is pushing for more traditional armed forces tasked with defending Afghan sovereignty.

There have additionally been concerns raised over the fact that a reduction of the Afghan security forces could come with the risk of demobilized, internationally trained soldiers being recruited for nefarious activities.

Friday's talks between NATO ministers and officials from the 22 non-NATO countries involved in the Afghanistan mission came hours after Rasmussen insisted that the alliance would carry out combat operations through 2014, amid ongoing speculation about its withdrawal plans.

The debate about the wrap-up of the Afghanistan mission had been spurred by French President Nicolas Sarkozy last week, when he set late 2013 as the departure date for his country's combat troops - following the killings of four French troops by an Afghan soldier.

All countries involved in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force agreed on Friday to a French proposal to develop a plan to counter Taliban infiltration of the Afghan security forces in response to the incident.

'Is it systematic infiltration? Presumably not. Is there the possibility of systematic infiltration in the future? Probably,' Longuet said. 'The Taliban are shrewd enough politically to size up how much this type of incident is pernicious for the credibility of the Afghan army.'

The situation in Kosovo was also predominant on the ministers' agenda, with German Defence Minister Thomas de Maiziere warning that he saw 'no possibility of pulling out' NATO peacekeepers for the time being.

The alliance had originally planned to halve its 5,800-strong Kosovo Force (KFOR) later this year. But the former Serb province then experienced a wave of fresh violence with ethnic Serbs in its north.

'2011 was a challenging year for our mission there,' Rasmussen acknowledged. 'Across much of Kosovo, the security situation is stable. But the situation is still fragile.'