Obama seeks more European help in Afghanistan

U.S. President Barack Obama told Europe on Friday it must do more to help the United States win the war in Afghanistan, seeking to use his huge public popularity here to wring concessions from NATO allies.
Greeted by crowds as a hero on his first trip to Europe as president, Obama warned its leaders and students at a meeting in the French city of Strasbourg that Europe faced a bigger threat from al Qaeda than the United States for geographical reasons.
"Europe should not simply expect the United States to shoulder that burden alone," he said of Afghanistan, looking to drum up support for his new strategy in the war.
"This is a joint problem that requires a joint effort," he said, before attending a dinner with leaders of the 28 NATO member states at a summit marking the military alliance's 60th anniversary in Strasbourg and nearby Baden-Baden in Germany.
Despite his popularity with many Europeans, police battled anti-NATO demonstrators with water cannon and teargas on the outskirts of Strasbourg to prevent them reaching the city centre. About 300 protesters were also arrested on Thursday.
A disagreement between Turkey and its European allies over who should be the next head of NATO also soured the mood, with Ankara resisting calls for Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen to replace the outgoing secretary-general.
Turkey is unhappy with Rasmussen's handling of a 2006 row over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad that caused riots in the Muslim world and NATO sources said discussions on the issue would continue on Saturday after no consensus had been found.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel had earlier come out openly in favour of Rasmussen and had hoped for a decision on Friday.
PRESSURE OVER AFGAHNISTAN
Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy each met Obama before the summit, but despite warm endorsements, they gave no indication they would send more soldiers to Afghanistan.
Britain said it would consider dispatching extra forces to help out during Afghanistan's August presidential election.
The United States has 38,000 troops in Afghanistan, more than all the other national contingents put together. Obama has said he will add an extra 17,000 combat troops as well as 4,000 others to help train Afghan officials.
European leaders are reluctant to send more of their own soldiers to a war that is unpopular with voters, preferring to focus their energies on reconstruction and development.
Unlike his predecessor George W. Bush, who was deeply unpopular in Europe and whose administration sometimes bullied allies publicly to bolster their contributions in Afghanistan, Obama struck a more conciliatory tone.
"I understand that after a long campaign in Afghanistan people can feel weary of war, even a war that is just," he told reporters at a joint news conference with Merkel.
But he also delivered a clear message, saying he expected Germany would be "stepping up to the plate" and warning of the al Qaeda threat to Europe.
Obama's Afghan plan aims to get a grip on rising violence by Taliban militants driven from power in 2001 but never completely defeated, broadening the focus to Pakistan and putting the highest priority on the defeat of al Qaeda militants.
He said on Friday he did not expect NATO troops would operate in Pakistan, easing fears of an expansion in the war.
CHEERING CROWDS
Obama was greeted by cheering crowds when he arrived in the Strasbourg in eastern France, fresh from his economic diplomacy at the G20 summit in Britain, and was also feted later when he travelled the short distance across the border to Germany.
The NATO summit will be packed with symbolism aimed at celebrating an alliance created to defend Europe's borders.
Obama warned that although NATO's old adversary, the Soviet Union, had gone, the threat of nuclear catastrophe remained.
"Even with the Cold War over, the spread of nuclear weapons or the theft of nuclear material could lead to the extermination of any city on the planet," he told the town hall meeting.
He said he would set out an agenda to seek a world without nuclear weapons at an EU-U.S. summit in Prague on Sunday.
The NATO summit will initially focus on often difficult relations with Moscow, with Obama saying the West needed engage Russia while acknowledging they had "some core disagreements".