8 April 2009

Barack Obama, the US president, is to meet the French president and German chancellor in an attempt to convince them to send extra troops to Afghanistan, before a Nato summit likely to focus on the alliance's role there.

Obama will talk to Nicolas Sarkozy in Strasbourg on Friday before crossing into Germany to meet Angela Merkel, hours before the summit opens in the German town of Baden-Baden.

The US president is set to unveil more details of his plan to tackle a resurgent Taliban-led opposition in Afghanistan and Pakistan at the summit.

Demonstrations were held on the eve of the summit on Thursday, with French police making about 100 arrests amid heavy clashes in Strasbourg, where the summit's key discussions will be held.

After Obama introduces his Afghanistan strategy to Nato members, he is expected to call for greater support on troop deployments needed to bolster his plan.

European nations have been reluctant to commit extra troops to Afghanistan in support of about 70,000 mostly Nato soldiers already stationed there.

"The United States has already said that it will deploy another 17,000 troops to the country, which was followed up by an announcement that another 4,000 US troops will be going there to train Afghan security forces," Hamish MacDonald, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Strasbourg, said.

"What we will see over the coming days is the US lobbying very hard to see European allies send more troops as well. Whether or not they will do that is another question entirely."

However, Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, said on Friday that Obama will not push Nato members on the numbers of troops they can deploy.

"The Nato summit is not a pledging conference," she said.

Obama's national security adviser is confident that Nato members will agree to send extra forces eventually.

General James Jones had said on Thursday: "It would be wrong to conclude that we will not get any contributions, either manpower or resources, because I think that's not going to be the case."

Jones praised efforts by Joe Biden, the US vice-president, Clinton and other US officials to consult Nato allies in advance of the introduction of Obama's Afghanistan strategy.

"I think there's a feeling that we're all in this together, and we'll wait and see exactly how far that takes us," he said.

"But having been at Nato and having been around since 2003 working on Afghanistan, I can tell you that there is a new spirit and there's a new feeling."

The summit, which marks Nato's 60th anniversary, will also examine the alliance's relations with Russia, which deteriorated after Moscow's war with Georgia in August.

The Russian government has repeatedly stressed its opposition to what it calls the creeping of Nato into what Moscow deems its traditional sphere of influence.

Both Georgia and Ukraine, which were members of the former Soviet Union, have in recent months signalled their intention to join Nato.