Nato calls for 'civilian surge' in Afghanistan

NATO called Thursday for a "civilian surge" in Afghanistan to boost reconstruction and help spread democracy as the military alliance battles to overcome a Taliban-led insurgency.

'civilian surge' in Afghanistan

Warning of the price of failure in Afghanistan, where NATO has undertaken its biggest and most challenging mission ever, alliance Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer appealed for new efforts ahead of elections in August.

"It is not only a matter of more forces in Afghanistan, we need an equal civilian surge as well," he told reporters in Krakow, southern Poland, after chairing informal talks between NATO defence ministers.

He called on international institutions like the United Nations and the European Union, to help provide "more development, more support for governance and more institution building."

The EU, for its part, is already providing Afghanistan with some eight billion euros over the 2001-2010 period and is helping train the Afghan police, and officials in Brussels wonder what more NATO wants them to do. More