BRUSSELS — NATO's chief urged allies on Wednesday to join the United States in a major troop surge in Afghanistan, with thousands more soldiers needed for a new strategy to seize the initiative from the insurgents.

With Washington to send 30,000 troops over the next six months in an effort to defeat Al-Qaeda and its Taliban backers, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen warned that the Afghan mission must not become a US operation.

"I call on all the allies to boost their troop numbers in Afghanistan," he told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

"This is not just America's war," he said. "What is happening in Afghanistan poses a clear and present danger to the citizens in all our countries."

"The balance within the alliance is at stake," he warned.


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