Gates: Taliban Getting Weapons From Iran

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, left, during a meeting with Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, June 12, 2007. NATO'S chief met Turkish officials for talks on their concerns about a plan that would allow allied forces in Afghanistan to provide full protection to a European Union police training mission there.(AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici/Pool) (Burhan Ozbilici - AP)

He has been frustrated by NATO members' slow progress in meeting commitments in Afghanistan. But he said Wednesday several countries recently indicated a willingness to increase the size of their force in Afghanistan or extend the length of their stay.

"I think countries are taking this seriously and so I will continue to press in Brussels," Gates said at a press conference at Ramstein.

Senior U.S. officials en route to Germany with Gates said the secretary would make a pitch for countries to send more trainers for the Afghan National Army and police in an effort to help the Kabul government better control its own security.

The officials, who requested anonymity so they could preview the secretary's plans for the NATO session, said coalition forces in Afghanistan need up to four battalions _ or as many as 3,000 combat troops, along with about an equal amount of trainers. Gates has said he would like some NATO and non-alliance nations to contribute some of the training forces.

In addition, NATO allies are trying to assemble training teams that can be embedded with Afghan units.

In February and again in April, Gates exhorted NATO allies to bolster their troop commitments in Afghanistan so the alliance could launch its own offensive against the Taliban and pre-empt what has been an annual spring increase in insurgent attacks.

That offensive got under way with the aid of additional U.S. troops.

During a visit to Afghanistan this month, Gates said NATO's push was making progress. But he said Iranian weapons, responsible for widespread violence and U.S. troop casualties in Iraq, increasingly were showing up in Afghanistan.

In particular, NATO officials said they have found armor-piercing roadside bombs _ known as explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs _ in Kabul, the Afghan capital.

The struggle to pressure NATO countries to live up to their commitments has led Gates to question whether the alliance should continue to mount a 25,000-troop response force.

The U.S. currently has 26,000 troops in Afghanistan, including some 14,000 in the NATO-led force.

Also expected to come up during the NATO meeting is the U.S. proposal to locate missile defense radars and interceptors in eastern Europe.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a recent meeting with President Bush, offered an alternative, joint use of a radar station in Azerbaijan.

Asked Wednesday about the proposal, Gates said that he hopes to discuss the matter with Russian officials and "certainly underscore our interest in exploring with them President Putin's proposal."

Gates said he is pleased Putin has acknowledged there is merit to missile defense and that Iran poses a problem that must be dealt with through such defensive systems.