RICE, BRITISH CONFER ON AFGHAN MISSION

The Top U.S. Diplomat Seeks to Sketch New Goals for the Nato Force
Amid Worries Over the Direction of the 6-Year-Old Conflict.

LONDON -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice huddled with
British officials Wednesday to sketch out new goals for the troubled
allied effort in Afghanistan at a time of deepening concern over the
direction of the 6-year-old conflict.

She met with Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Foreign Secretary David
Miliband ahead of a series of top-level meetings of Western allies in
the months ahead to settle on a long-term course for the mission.

Rice said the Western allies needed to strengthen their leadership,
add combat troops, crack down on the opium trade and extend the
authority of Afghanistan's weak central government farther into the
heartland.

"It's bumpy and there's a lot of maturing that the alliance is having
to do to do this," she told reporters on her plane en route to London.
Afghanistan "is a very difficult place to work."

Rice maintained that the trend in the country was toward improvement,
but acknowledged serious problems, including the Taliban's ability "to
wreak havoc on the Afghan people."

In this, her assessment was more sober than that of President Bush,
who in his State of the Union address last week described a country
with a surging economy, advancing education system and improving
security. Bush did not mention in his address any of the problems
confronting U.S. officials and their allies.

But over the last week, a series of reports by respected private
groups -- including one co-chaired by retired U.S. Marine Corps Gen.
James L. Jones, who also serves as a Bush administration special envoy
- -- have concluded that the mission faces grave dangers because of the
weakness of the Afghan government and the uneven commitment of NATO
nations.

Majorities in all the contributing countries, except for the United
States and Britain, want their troops to pull out of
Afghanistan.

Last month, a plan to install veteran British politician Paddy Ashdown
as a "super envoy" to coordinate the mission was vetoed by Afghan
President Hamid Karzai as a threat to his nation's sovereignty. Rice
said she was confident the alliance would soon find another suitable
candidate, most likely a European.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies, though determined not
to relive the frictions experienced in 2003 during the run-up to the
Iraq war, continue to struggle against pressure from U.S. officials
and others for troop increases.

Last week, the German government again firmly rejected suggestions
that it send its troops to confront violence in southern
Afghanistan.

Canada, which has suffered a disproportionate loss of 78 soldiers from
fighting in the Kandahar region of the south, has threatened to
withdraw its troops unless other countries deploy more forces to help
fight the resurgent Taliban and Al Qaeda.

There are now 43,250 troops from 40 nations in Afghanistan with the
NATO-led force, including about 15,000 Americans and 7,800 Britons. An
additional 14,000 U.S. troops are in the country operating separately
from the alliance's force. The Pentagon last month announced plans to
add about 3,200 Marines.

Rice said alliance planners were considering whether to expand the
size of the force in Afghanistan beyond what was originally envisioned.

She and Miliband arrived in Afghanistan this morning on an unannounced
visit.

The secretary of State said needs included more people to train Afghan
security forces, more effective action against drug cartels, and more
roads to extend the influence of the central government.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, meanwhile, left Washington on
Wednesday night for a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Lithuania,
where he will press allies to contribute additional forces to the
Afghan mission, particularly in the violent south.

Gates told a Senate hearing Wednesday that he feared problems in
Afghanistan were causing NATO to splinter, a point he plans to
emphasize in Lithuania and in a major address over the weekend in
Munich, Germany.

"I worry a great deal about the alliance evolving into a two-tiered
alliance, in which you have some allies willing to fight and die to
protect people's security, and others who are not," Gates said.

He also said that despite the U.S. commitment to send the 3,200
Marines to the south, he was losing hope for any new European troop
contributions there.

"I've been working this problem pretty steadfastly for many months at
this point, and I would say that I am not particularly optimistic,"
Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Army Gen. Dan K. McNeill, the U.S. commander of NATO forces in
Afghanistan, said he anticipated that Britain and Poland would
announce slight increases during the gathering in Lithuania, but that
such moves would not be adequate. Still, he said, the extra troops
would be helpful.

Bush is to meet with visiting NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop
Scheffer on Feb. 29.