Rice, British Foreign Secretary Visit Afghanistan

Rice and Miliband met with NATO commanders and troops Thursday, at an air base in the southern city of Kandahar, before heading back to the country's capital, Kabul, to meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Rice said she made the visit to Kandahar to see an area that has been very active.

Earlier, the U.S. secretary of state told reporters there needs to be more Afghan contributions to the coalition force fighting the insurgents. Rice says NATO forces are facing a "real test" in Afghanistan, and stressed that alliance members must share the burden of combat against the Taliban.

The U.S. and British secretaries' visit comes as NATO defense ministers meet in Lithuania Thursday to discuss the alliance's deployment in Afghanistan.

U.S., British, Canadian and Dutch troops have most of the NATO combat burden in the most perilous southern regions of Afghanistan.

Canada has threatened to pull its troops from the country next year unless other allies send reinforcements.

Last week, Germany spurned a call by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates to send forces to the south. German officials say their country's troop presence is restricted by parliamentary mandate to northern areas of Afghanistan. German officials Wednesday said they will send 200 additional troops to the north.

Source: By VOA News