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Mon Feb 7, 8:21 PM ET |
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By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will lobby NATO (news - web sites) allies at a meeting in France this week to chip in more to help train Iraqi security forces, a U.S. official said on Monday.
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Rumsfeld also wants some allies to drop restrictions that may undercut the training mission, the official added.
NATO countries have sent 84 military officers to Iraq (news - web sites) to take part in the alliance's mission to help forge capable new Iraqi security forces, said a senior defense official, briefing reporters before Rumsfeld's trip to Nice this week for an informal NATO defense ministerial meeting. The number of officers is slated to reach about 300.
"We'd like countries to do more," the official said, either in providing troops, equipment or money for the training mission or helping in training Iraqis outside of Iraq.
The official pointed to the Jan. 30 parliamentary elections as a sign of progress in Iraq.
"And I do think that with the successful elections that there is going to be, probably, a greater enthusiasm about doing more on the part of some countries that were maybe reticent. I think we're in a somewhat new phase," the official added.
Rumsfeld is scheduled to depart on Tuesday for the NATO defense minister's meeting.
The defense official said Rumsfeld would press NATO allies to scrap "national caveats" limiting what their military personnel can do in NATO missions, saying those restrictions had hurt alliance missions in Kosovo and Iraq.
The official said "about five" countries had ordered their military personnel serving on the NATO headquarters staff not to go to Iraq as part of the training missions or, in some cases, take part in planning for such training. The official did not name the countries.
Those restrictions limited the role of about 20 percent of the NATO headquarters staff, the official said.
"This is something that needs to get fixed," the official said.
Rumsfeld is also due to discuss NATO's Afghanistan (news - web sites) mission, in which about 8,300 troops from 36 countries are taking part in alliance peacekeeping and reconstruction efforts.
The official said there were 19 provincial reconstruction teams operating in Afghanistan -- 14 led by the United States and five by NATO. The official expected NATO countries to announce two more such teams at the meeting, with the alliance taking over two existing U.S. teams, bringing the total to 21, including nine led by NATO.
The Pentagon (news - web sites) has not announced whether Rumsfeld will go to Germany for an annual European security conference this weekend.
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