France, Germany Dismiss U.S. Call on Afghan Force
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POIANA BRASOV, Romania  - France and Germany  rejected any merger of the NATO and U.S-led missions in  Afghanistan on Wednesday after Washington urged the alliance to  study taking command of all military operations there.
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France is considering sending forces to join the fight against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan and planned talks Friday with Canadian officials requesting 1,000 troops to support its beleaguered soldiers in volatile Kandahar province
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RIGA, Latvia -- NATO was divided at its summit yesterday on deploying more troops to Afghanistan's volatile south, with Germany resisting any permanently expanded presence and Canada complaining of bearing the brunt of an increasingly bloody mission.
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Germany's defense minister defended his army's efforts in the north of Afghanistan on Friday, rejecting a written plea from Defense Secretary Robert Gates for more help in the volatile south.
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German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung said Friday that Berlin had no plans to deploy combat troops in battle-ravaged southern Afghanistan, after an urgent US request for NATO partners to do more to stabilise the country.
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Germany believes its troops should remain in Afghanistan until the country can take care of its own security needs, according to an internal government document obtained by AFP.
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VILNIUS/KABUL  - NATO's top official rejected on Thursday U.S. concern that some member countries were not pulling their weight in the fighting in Afghanistan.
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Germany said Wednesday it could not rule out sending troops to Iraq, dropping its firm refusal to consider any deployment to the country whose invasion last year it staunchly opposed.
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France and Germany spoke out Wednesday against a U.S. proposal to put NATO in charge of the military and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, but U.S. and other officials said the alliance would go ahead and develop options for merging the missions.
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At a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Romania on Wednesday, Germany objected to Washington&#39;s proposal for NATO forces to take over the US military mission in Afghanistan as part of next year&#39;s reorganization efforts.
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NOORDWIJK, Netherlands  - Nine nations including Germany and France pledged to send more military personnel to Afghanistan but U.S. calls for major troop increases were only partly answered at NATO talks on Wednesday.
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PARIS, Jan. 16 -- Some of the United States' closest NATO allies expressed anger and astonishment Wednesday at published statements by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates describing their forces as poorly trained for fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan.
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Islamic militants threatened to attack Germany and Austria unless the two European nations break ranks with the U.S. and withdraw their personnel from Afghanistan, according to a Web statement.
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Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on  Tuesday rejected criticism of a plan to remove U.S. troops from  Europe and Asia, saying the United States had no intention of  abandoning allies to establish a "Fortress America."
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POIANA BRASOV, ROMANIA - Germany and France have rejected an appeal by the United States to have NATO take over the American-led combat mission in Afghanistan.
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German officials today reaffirmed their policy of not contributing troops to the American-led coalition in Iraq and rejected speculation, prompted by a remark by the
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Defense Secretary Robert Gates  made a direct appeal to Europeans on Sunday to support the war  in Afghanistan, warning that violence and terrorism could surge  worldwide if NATO was defeated there.