NATO Plans to Expand Afghanistan Mission

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, center, speaks with soldiers of the Afghanistan National Army during a visit at the Military Training Center in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday July 20, 2006. The Afghanistan National Army is trained by British troops from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). The NATO mission to Afghanistan's insurgency-wracked south will be "tough" but the alliance must not fail in its bid to promote reconstruction and defeat the Taliban, NATO's visiting secretary-general said Thursday. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert) (Geert Vanden Wijngaert - AP)

A NATO delegation reviewing the alliance's expansion into southern provinces toured the region Friday, visiting British, Dutch and Canadian soldiers building camps in blistering heat.

A coalition soldier was killed by militants Thursday in Sharan, the capital of southeastern Paktika province, when they hit a coalition compound with rockets and mortars, the coalition said. The soldier's nationality was not released.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, who joined Jones in the delegation, acknowledged the difficulty of the alliance's mission in the south _ to defeat the Taliban and promote reconstruction _ but said it could not be allowed to fail.

"I think everybody realizes that this is not only NATO's largest mission but the most important, so it has risks," de Hoop Scheffer said in Kandahar.

NATO-led troops deploying to the south _ mostly British, Canadian and Dutch forces _ currently work with U.S. troops as part of a campaign against the resurgent Taliban.

NATO's troop strength nationwide should reach about 18,000 by September.

The United States has at least 21,000 troops in Afghanistan, many of which will be incorporated into the NATO force. However, the United States will maintain a combat force independent of NATO to hunt down Taliban and al-Qaida militants.

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Associated Press reporters Fisnik Abrashi in Kabul and Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, contributed to this report.