NATO head Anders Fogh Rasmussen has called on the organisation’s members to send more military trainers and equipment to help Afghan forces.

He conceded the high costs of such an action but warned that leaving Afghanistan to its fate would exact and even higher price. He said the country would become a training ground for the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

Mr Rasmussen was speaking at a two-day summit of NATO defence ministers in the Slovakian capital Bratislava. The meeting is chiefly concerned with a recent report by United States General Stanley A. McChrystal, the current commander of US and international forces in Afghanistan. In the report, General McChrystal argued for the despatch of more troops to Afghanistan.

The United States is currently considering whether to send a further 40,000 troops to Afghanistan. It already has 65,000 troops stationed there, partly under its own command and partly under a NATO flag.

Photo of Anders Fogh Rasmussen from World Economic Forum