US discuss Afghan withdrawal

PORTUGAL: US President Barack Obama and his NATO allies open a two-day summit Friday to back a 2014 target for ceding control over the bogged-down Afghan war to Kabul.

After nine years of war provoked by Al-Qaeda's 9/11 attack, 2,200 troops killed among US-led forces, and now an open row with Kabul over tactics, NATO will deliver the closest thing yet to a withdrawal timetable. Leaders, meeting at a complex of white steel, concrete and canvas-roofed buildings at the shores of the River Tejo, will be drawing up nothing less than the outlines of a new era for the 28-nation alliance.

The priorities for the meeting: Agreement that from early next year, troops will start gradually returning home. By 2014, the goal is for Afghans to control most of the battlefield, disputed by a fierce Taliban resistance. Erecting an anti-ballistic missile shield across the skies of Europe to protect NATO members in the continent, and overcoming Russian fears by inviting them to take part.

Reform the alliance to slash the number of command headquarters and make them more easily deployable to faraway conflicts such as Afghanistan.

AFP