Obama brings Afghan plan to NATO allies

[April 03, 2009]  STRASBOURG, France (AP) -- President Barack Obama took his new strategy for the war in Afghanistan on Friday to NATO leaders reluctant to commit significant new forces.

The 28-nation alliance is eager to quickly repair relations with a resurgent Russia, whose president cautioned NATO against further eastward expansion in a warning ahead of the alliance's 60th anniversary summit.

Obama -- who arrived in Strasbourg from London on Friday morning -- was meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel before the formal start of the summit at a dinner at the German resort spa of Baden-Baden.

Sarkozy rolled out all the pomp possible for Obama's visit, with a red carpet arrival with full military honors from a company of soldiers dressed in camouflage at the majestic 18th-century Rohan Palace, once home to the bishops of Alsace. Church bells pealed at the stroke of noon from the nearby Strasbourg cathedral, while helicopters helping ensure security droned overhead.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner also were present, as was Sarkozy's special envoy for Afghanistan, a sign that the conflict there would also likely come up for discussion.

NATO's ability to succeed in a now-deadlocked war in Afghanistan will be seen as a crucial test of the alliance's power and relevance. Although European governments have already made clear they are unwilling to deploy significant new ground forces, they have been more enthusiastic about increasing humanitarian and development assistance to the beleaguered government in Kabul.

In Washington, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday that the United States would ask its allies for more civilian help, including significant assistance to Afghan government ministries.

Other items on the packed agenda of the two-day summit include starting work on a new doctrine that will define the alliance's role and values in the 21st century and choosing a new secretary-general. The leaders will formally welcome France back into NATO's military wing after a 43-year absence, a largely symbolic move championed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. They will also welcome two new members from the Balkans -- Albania and Croatia joined NATO this week.

While NATO leaders have emphasized that the meeting Friday and Saturday must be more than just a birthday celebration, no major breakthroughs are expected on key issues facing the alliance.

The two-day conference -- co-hosted by the Rhine river cities of Strasbourg and Kehl, Germany -- is the second of three major international meetings taking place in Europe this week.

Obama and the leaders of the Group of 20 nations made headway Thursday on tackling the world's worst financial crisis since the 1930s. The U.S. president's meeting with European Union leaders in Prague on Sunday also will focus on economic issues.

Ties with Russia have been strained over the alliance's eastward expansion and last summer's war between Russia and Georgia

The allies are expected to approve moves to normalize relations with Moscow, which were frozen following the Russia-Georgia war in August. Things have improved since then, and Russia has allowed NATO nations to use its territory to supply their forces in Afghanistan after the main supply route through Pakistan came under repeated Taliban attacks. But Moscow also wants an end to Bush-era plans to bring Ukraine and Georgia into the alliance, and to install a missile shield in eastern Europe.

And Russia vehemently opposes membership for Georgia and Ukraine, whose pro-Western leaders want to bring their nations into the alliance.

"NATO needs to think about preserving its unity and not harming relations with its neighbors," the state-run RIA-Novosti news agency quoted him as saying.

The leaders may also announce a decision on NATO's new secretary-general, who will succeed Dutch diplomat Jaap de Hoop Scheffer whose term runs out Aug. 1.

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has emerged at the leading candidate, despite opposition from Turkey. Fogh Rasmussen infuriated many Muslims by speaking out in favor of freedom of speech during an uproar over Danish publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in 2006.

On Friday, a spokeswoman for Fogh Rasmussen's Liberal Party said the Danish leader had confirmed for the first time that he was a candidate.

Turkey's prime minister expressed strong opposition to Fogh Rasmussen's candidacy but did not say whether Turkey would veto it.

The sites of the summit straddling the French-German border were swathed in police and security cordons as demonstrators from several countries poured in with a panoply of demands from pulling out of Afghanistan to building a new and more just world economic order. Up to 65,000 protesters may rally on both sides of the border, authorities said.

During clashes on Thursday and early Friday, French police detained 107 anti-NATO demonstrators for their for their role in violent clashes before the two-day summit.

Riot police using tear gas and rubber bullets forced hundreds of demonstrators off the streets of Strasbourg Thursday night back into a tent camp on the edge of the city. Demonstrators destroyed telephone booths and attempted to build barricades before they were stopped, a police spokesman said.

[Associated Press; By SLOBODAN LEKIC]

Associated Press writers Robert Burns in Washington, Deborah Seward in Strasbourg, Steve Guttermann and Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen contributed to this report.

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