TAORMINA (Italy), Feb 10: The defence ministers of countries belonging to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) on Thursday pledged to keep their plans for expansion into southern Afghanistan on track despite attacks against peacekeepers over the caricatures.

“We remain fully committed to expansion,” said Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer as defence ministers from the 26-nation alliance opened two days of talks in the Sicilian resort city of Taormina.

Mr Scheffer admitted the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan had faced ‘serious challenges’ earlier this week when crowds, angered by publication of the cartoons in several European newspapers, attacked Norwegian peacekeepers and an American military base.

But NATO’s long-standing plans to deploy an additional 6,000 troops in southern Afghanistan remained on track, he insisted.

German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung told reporters the alliance was determined to keep its commitment to ensuring security in Afghanistan.

”We have a responsibility to guarantee stability in Afghanistan ... we will assume that task,” Mr Jung said.

NATO ministers are hoping that talks with their counterparts from six Arab countries this week will help defuse the crisis over the caricatures.

Representatives from Egypt, Jordan, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Mauritania are expected to attend the first-ever meeting of NATO and southern Mediterranean defence ministers.

Growing concern in Europe over Muslim reaction aver the cartoon issue has prompted NATO ministers to change their original schedule by discussing the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan on the first day of their talks in Taormina.

Discussions on ISAF and other NATO missions were initially expected to be held on Friday.

NATO currently has an estimated 9,000 troops in Kabul as well as in northern and western Afghanistan. Plans to send additional troops into the more volatile southern part of the country were agreed last year following persistent US demands that the alliance must expand its presence in Afghanistan.

Before attending the Taormina talks, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld repeated Washington’s long-standing desire to transfer all international peacekeeping in Afghanistan to NATO troops, leaving American forces to focus on tracking the Al Qaeda and the Taliban fighters.

Many European governments, however, remain wary of being drawn into direct confrontation with the militants. The Dutch parliament gave its go-ahead last week to the deployment of 1,400 soldiers to the volatile region, but only after voicing misgivings about the deployment.

Additional forces for southern Afghanistan have been promised by Denmark, Britain, Canada and Australia.