New Nato chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer called Wednesday on the alliance's member states to do even more to fill shortfalls in resources for the Nato-led peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan.
"I have made a plea to all nations to see that the still existing gaps in what we need should be filled very quickly," said the alliance secretary general, calling on "all nations... to do more."
"Afghanistan is the number one priority for the alliance," he added.
Nato, in its first mission outside Europe, took command last August of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which was set up in December 2001 weeks after the defeat of the hard-line Taleban regime.
Its member states have agreed to expand the ISAF beyond the capital Kabul, notably by setting up provincial reconstruction teams (PRTs), one of which has just been established in the northern city of Kunduz.
But De Hoop Scheffer's predecessor George Robertson battled in his final months in office to drum up more contributions, before he ended his mandate in December.
The new Dutch Nato chief, speaking after talks in Brussels the alliance's special envoy to Afghanistan, Jean-Francois Arnault, said Nato's military chiefs were now drawing up detailed operational plans to establish alliance command of other PRTs.
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