BRUSSELS: Nato Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer on Monday intensified calls for the European Union to take on a greater role in Afghanistan by boosting reconstruction and police training in support of the alliance's military operation.

''Nato is doing a lot, but we are neither a relief organisation nor a reconstruction agency,'' de Hoop Scheffer said. ''Now is the time for the international community to step in and help push Afghanistan in the right direction.''

Nato, which commands a force of over 30,000 troops seeking to bring security to Afghanistan, has long pushed the EU, the United Nations and other organisations to back it up with more civilian aid operations.

In recent days, alliance officials repeatedly have urged the EU to commit itself to training and funding programmes to give Afghans a competent and trustworthy police and judiciary.

''The fledgling Afghan national police should be taken on by the European Union as an important project,'' de Hoop Scheffer told a security conference organised by a Brussels think-tank. ''This is typically something the EU should take on and what is not enough on the EU's radar screen.''

De Hoop Scheffer appealed to the 19 nations that are members of Nato and the EU to ensure that both organisations are fully committed to the effort in Afghanistan.

He said the creation of effective Afghan security forces and international efforts to rebuild the country rather than any military successes against the Taliban or other insurgents would determine whether

Nato troops could leave the country.

''In Afghanistan, there is no military answer,'' de Hoop Scheffer told the audience of diplomats, journalists and defence experts. ''You need an exit strategy. What is it? It is training and equipping the Afghan national army. It is training and equipping the Afghan national police. But first and foremost, it's development; it's reconstruction.''—AP