By Mark Deen
(Bloomberg) -- Britain urged European allies to send more troops to Afghanistan, adding pressure for commitments that are set to increase after President-elect Barack Obama takes office next week.

“We want the NATO alliance to step up to the plate,” Defense Secretary John Hutton told journalists today in London. “It is not credible for the Europeans to say that America can go on doing the all heavy lifting.”

With the Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan now at its fiercest since the war started in 2001, Obama is planning to send as many as 30,000 additional soldiers to the country, doubling the current U.S. presence. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has another 37,000 troops in the theater.

Obama, who made bolstering the Afghan mission a key plank of his presidential campaign, plans to draw on his popularity in Europe to seek greater contributions from allies. The U.S. call for more European support will come to a head in April, when leaders of the 26-member alliance gather in Strasbourg, France and neighboring Kehl, Germany to set strategy for the next two years.

“For NATO, the struggle in Afghanistan is a defining issue,” Hutton said. “NATO has to stand together and I don’t believe that all members are doing that sufficiently.”

The U.K., whose 8,900 troops are the second-biggest foreign contingent in Afghanistan, may bolster that force when its mission in Iraq ends later this year. The transfer would not be a one-for-one swap from one warzone to the other.

“Our armed forces’ operational tempo is not sustainable in the longer term,” Hutton said.

Upsurge in Violence

While countries such as France and Germany have expanded their presence in Afghanistan over the past year, the increase has been met by an upsurge in violence from the radical Islamist Taliban movement that was ousted from power after the Sept. 11 attacks. Demands on troops are set to grow further before Afghanistan’s presidential election next year.

Of the 33,000-strong force the U.S. currently has in Afghanistan, about 15,000 soldiers are part of the NATO force and another 18,000 operate separately.

Even with the planned buildup, U.S. and NATO forces won’t be large enough by themselves to fulfill the primary goal of any effective counter-insurgency campaign, which is protecting the population, military experts say.

In Iraq, they note, the U.S. had more than 150,000 troops at the height of last year’s surge. And Afghanistan has 16 percent more people than Iraq, 48 percent more territory and a far more challenging military environment because of its varied terrain and lack of roads.

Hutton said that the alliance must also take a broader view of its mission, making strategy from a regional perspective, though he ruled out any troop presence in neighboring Pakistan.

“We’re not envisaging any U.K. military force in Pakistan, it’s out of the question,” he said. “There is substantial diplomatic and economic help that can be given.”

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