Obama wins Nato backing

Strasbourg: US President Barack Obama won Nato backing on Friday to boost troop numbers to cover the Afghan presidential election in August, but his European allies stopped short of offering long-term deployments for the war effort.

Leaders of the 28-nation military alliance pledged at a summit to send 3,000 more troops on short-term assignments to boost security for elections in Afghanistan, and some 2,000 more personnel to train Afghan security forces.

They also promised to send 300 paramilitary police trainers and provide $600 million to finance the Afghan army and civilian assistance, Obama said.

Outgoing Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said allies were united in support for the strategy championed by Obama, who favours a regional approach to Afghanistan with a stepped-up civilian effort and training of Afghan security forces. He said more than 10 countries announced new contributions.

At the conclusion of the Nato summit in Strasbourg, France, Obama told reporters his counterparts put Nato's "stamp of approval" on his strategy for the region. He said the US and its allies would put more money into Pakistan to provide help beyond the military fight, but added that the release of aid would depend on how Islamabad tackles the threat of terrorism.

Highlighting the challenges ahead, a suspected US drone fired two missiles yesterday at an alleged militant hideout in northwestern Pakistan, leaving 13 people dead in a volatile area near the Afghan border where a suicide bomber killed at least two civilians, officials said.

In Afghanistan, a soldier in a Nato-led force died in a bomb blast while the US military announced it had killed 35 Taliban-linked insurgents. And in Islamabad, a suicide bomber killed up to six people at a police camp late last night in the second such attack in the Pakistani capital in less than two weeks, police said.

The Nato summit came to a conclusion as protesters fought police and set buildings alight in Strasbourg. They set a hotel and a customs house on fire and three columns of smoke could be seen rising over the Europe Bridge area of the French city, across from the small town of Kehl in Germany, where part of the summit was held.

- With inputs from AP & Reuters