VILNIUS, Feb 8: The Nato chief on Friday called on Afghanistan to improve its government and strengthen its security forces to step up the fight against the Taliban.

Speaking at a Nato defence ministers meeting where there has been wrangling over troop levels in Afghanistan, Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer warned that “governance must visibly improve, so that the Afghan people have trust in their leaders”.

The meeting has been dominated by a dispute over foreign troop levels in Afghanistan, but the second day was devoted to discussing international aid for the country with the United Nations, European Union, World Bank and Afghanistan’s Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak.

“The police need robust support to develop and they need it now. The narco-economy must be replaced by a legal, sustainable economy. And the Afghan army must get more support from Nato nations and from partners, to stand on its own feet and defend its own country,” he added.

The Nato secretary general also urged the United Nations to “name as soon as possible a weighty individual” to lead a UN mission in Afghanistan.

But, emerging from the top level talks, Scheffer said the international community was “unified” on Afghanistan and had shown “a clear commitment that we are in this for the long haul”.

Afghanistan reportedly rejected Paddy Ashdown, the former international envoy in Bosnia-Herzegovina, as the UN envoy in Afghanistan. Ashdown said he had been offered the job by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon but Afghan President Hamid Karzai disagreed.

The UN-mandated International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in Afghanistan has 43,000 troops from 40 states, but is struggling against a renewed Taliban insurgency and Nato commanders have sought more troops and weapons.

Germany has rejected calls from the United States and Canada to move some of its 3,200 troops in Afghanistan to the southern frontline amid warnings that the dispute could harm Nato’s cohesion.

Poland’s Defence Minister Bogdan Klich said in a newspaper interview published on Friday that his country would also not move its 1,200 troops in Afghanistan to the fight against the Taliban.

But France has indicated that it is ready to support Canadian troops in the south and a Canadian delegation was in Paris on Friday for talks, Canadian Defence Minister Peter MacKay said.

“We wanted to talk in more detail about logistics and that’s what’s happening in Paris today,” MacKay said, without confirming that it means France would send combat troops.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has warned Nato allies that Canada would withdraw its 2,500 troops from Afghanistan unless Nato sent 1,000 extra troops plus equipment.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates adopted a pragmatic line on Thursday suggesting that states which could not send more troops because of domestic politics should send equipment or non-combat troops instead.

Mr Gates told reporters on a trip from Vilnius to Munich on Friday that failure in Afghanistan would directly threaten European security. He stressed the need for mobilising allies in Europe.

“Afghanistan not only was the source of attacks against the United States in 2001, but it is clear that Al Qaeda and others in this area have played a role in these attacks that have taken place in Europe, so this is a direct security threat to Europe.”

German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung resisted US pressure to send German troops to the restive south.

The Bundestag voted in October to extend Germany’s Afghan mission for a year, but exclusively in the north.

Over the last 18 months, the United States has urged European Nato allies -- notably Germany, France, Spain and Italy -- to join Britain, The Netherlands and Canada in fighting Taliban insurgents.

ISAF forces have grown from 16,000 to 43,000 troops over two years, but commanders have been calling for another 7,500 troops to fight the resurgent Taliban.—AFP