September 27, 2008	Saturday	Ramazan 26, 1429

BERLIN, Sept 26: France is refusing to contribute financially to the deployment of Awacs radar aircraft to Afghanistan as requested by the Nato military alliance, a German defence ministry spokesman said on Friday.

A Nato official in Brussels said only there was a “difference about modalities of payment”.

The official said that France had its own national fleet of Awacs (airborne warning and control system) planes and is refusing to put money towards deploying Nato’s own 17-strong fleet — from a pool of 16 countries based in western Germany — being deployed to Afghanistan.

Paris, which is trying to rein in defence spending, believes that sending the aircraft to Afghanistan would help operations there, but that sending more helicopters, drones and other equipment is a higher priority.

Following France’s refusal at a meeting of Nato’s military committee in Brussels, the issue could be passed on to the alliance’s council of 26 ambassadors for further discussion.“Discussions are continuing,” Nato spokeswoman Carmen Romero said.—AFP