Norway's centre-left government said on Wednesday it would not send special forces to Afghanistan, rejecting Nato calls for reinforcements to southern Afghan regions where foreign soldiers face growing resistance.
Last month officials from the US-led Nato military alliance called on Norway to boost its presence in Afghanistan from its current 480 troops, and diplomats had said that Norwegian officials signalled they would abide.
But Norway's foreign and defence ministers said in a joint statement that the country's forces were already stretched and that no more troops could be sent to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan for the time being.
The decision followed heightened tensions between the parties in Norway's Labour-led coalition government as politicians from the Socialist Left Party (SV), a junior coalition partner, opposed sending more soldiers. "Norway will not expand its military contribution to ISAF to include special forces at the present time," said Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere and Defence Minister Anne-Grete Stroem-Erichsen.
"The Norwegian contribution will be based on an overall assessment of needs and capacities, and the obligations we have assumed linked to other current international operations and a possible future UN operation in Sudan/Darfur." Norway said, however, it would increase financial aid to Afghanistan and continuously review its abilities to send more troops. Nato troops, led by British soldiers, have for weeks taken almost daily casualties as they push into the violent south of Afghanistan.
Last month a Norwegian deputy defence minister told Reuters that Norway had to be sure that the longer-term development plan for Afghanistan would over time curb reliance on foreign troops before committing more soldiers.