NATO countries to stay in Iraq

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Nearly all of the NATO countries with troops in Iraq have pledged to remain there in 2004 to help stabilize and rebuild the country, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday.\nIn an interview with American reporters after two days of talks with NATO allies, Rumsfeld said he was encouraged by allied support for the U.S. effort in Iraq in the face of attacks by insurgents.\nHe said 18 of 26 NATO member countries have troops operating in Iraq as part of the U.S.-led coalition. They number about 24,000, compared with the 130,000 American troops on duty there.\n"Most if not all have pledged to stay on," he said, "to work to sustain their contributions and to not be dissuaded by the fact that there have been some high-profile casualties that have been taken by some of the coalition countries."\nHe was referring to the slaying Saturday of seven Spanish intelligence officers, as well as the killing of two South Korean workers and two Japanese diplomats in separate incidents on Sunday.\nSpain vowed to keep its 1,700 troops in Iraq, and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Tuesday stood by his pledge to send troops to Iraq, even as Japanese media reported that Japan would postpone sending a team of engineers and doctors there. In Seoul Tuesday, a group of South Korean lawmakers recommended to parliament that both combat and non-combat troops be sent to Iraq.\nAmong the other NATO member countries with troops in Iraq are Poland, which is leading a multinational division that includes the Spanish contingent, and Britain, which joined U.S. forces in the invasion last March.\nAlthough most NATO countries have contributed to the Iraq effort, some have disappointed the Bush administration. Turkey, for example, offered to send troops but withdrew the offer after Iraq's U.S.-appointed governing body objected. France and Germany object to a larger NATO role in Iraq until the United Nations is given a bigger and more direct role in restoring Iraqi sovereignty.\nDuring a NATO session Monday, Spain suggested a larger NATO role, perhaps by having the alliance assume command late next year of the multinational division now led by Poland. The United States favors that idea, although it has not yet been proposed officially for a NATO decision.\nRumsfeld also held a one-on-one session Tuesday with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov. Rumsfeld told reporters afterward that they discussed U.S.-Russian military relations as well as the situation in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, where President Eduard Shevardnadze was forced to resign late last month following civil unrest over parliamentary elections marked by ballot fraud.\nRumsfeld said he raised with Ivanov the United States' desire to have Georgia's territorial integrity respected by all, but the defense secretary would not offer details of their conversation.\nSecretary of State Colin Powell, in a Maastricht, Netherlands speech, criticized Russia for refusing to meet a Dec. 31 deadline to withdraw troops from Georgia and Moldova. Both countries are wracked by separatist movements.\nGeorgia's new acting president, Nino Burdzhanadze, has accused Russia of undermining Georgian sovereignty by supporting two separatist provinces over the past decade and by hosting their leaders last week in Moscow.\nRumsfeld said Ivanov told him there was nothing unusual about the provincial leaders visiting Moscow, since it happens regularly.\nRumsfeld also participated in a NATO conference with Ukraine, which is associated with NATO but is not a member.\n"Ukraine today exports stability, including by maintaining its forces in the Balkans and contributing to the post-conflict stabilization of Iraq," said NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson, opening talks with Ukrainian Defense Minister Yevhen Marchuk.