BUCHAREST, April 1: US President George Bush pushed Nato on Tuesday to “finish the fight” against extremists in Afghanistan and urged Russia to join a planned US missile shield he said was urgently needed to thwart a possible threat from Iran.

“If we were to let up the pressure, the extremists would re-establish safe havens across the country, and use them to terrorize the Afghan people and threaten our own,” he said in remarks prepared for delivery at a Nato summit on Wednesday.

In excerpts made public by the White House, Bush said the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation had outlived the Soviet menace it was created to blunt and must now act as “an expeditionary alliance” around the world.

“Our alliance must maintain its resolve and finish the fight in Afghanistan,” he said, as Washington pressed fellow alliance members to step up their troop and money commitments to stabilise and rebuild the strife-torn country.

“Just two weeks ago, Osama bin Laden issued an audio recording in which he threatened Europe with new attacks. We need to take the words of the enemy seriously. The terrorist threat is real, it is deadly, and defeating this enemy must be the top priority of the Nato Alliance,” he said.

Looking to weekend talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has firmly opposed Washington’s planned missile defence system, the US president warned: “The need for missile defence in Europe is real and it is urgent.” Bush said Washington was working on defences against short-, medium-, and long-range missile strikes and declared: “As we do, we are inviting Russia to join us in this cooperative effort to defend Russia, Europe, and the United States against an emerging threat that could affect us all.” Bush said Iranian missiles had the range to hit Israel and Turkey today, that Tehran sought missiles that could reach Romania someday, and may at some point in the future be able to hit the United States or all of Europe.

The US president said he would tell Putin “that the missile defence capabilities we are developing are not designed to defend against Russia just as the new Nato we are building is not designed to defend against Russia. The Cold War is over.

“Russia is not our enemy. We are working toward a new security relationship with Russia whose foundation does not rest on the prospect of mutual annihilation,” Bush said.—AFP