Obama gets little NATO aid for Afghanistan

STRASBOURG, France -- On the eve of the NATO summit, President Barack Obama didn't get what he wanted most from U.S. allies: significant new commitments of combat troops for Afghanistan.

Faced with stiff public opposition to war, reluctant European leaders yesterday offered only limited aid for civilians and some troops to help train Afghan police and soldiers.

The summit's co-hosts, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, offered support for Obama's new Afghan strategy of sending American reinforcements and bolstering Afghan forces. But they went no further.

Obama plans to add 21,000 U.S. soldiers and Marines to the 38,000 Americans already fighting militants. His strategy also calls for increased focus on boosting the capabilities of Afghanistan's police and army and improving the effectiveness of the government in Kabul.

NATO has a force of about 58,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, of which about 26,000 are Americans. The remaining 12,000 U.S. troops operate under a separate command.

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Protesters clashed for a second day with French police, injuring two officers.

Police fired tear gas at rock-hurling protesters yesterday. Police said that several hundred protesters started to burn a makeshift barricade on a road leading to a camp of demonstrators in the Strasbourg neighborhood of Neuhof.

Some 15,000 German police -- including 31 riot squads -- and 9,000 French police are on call for the summit.

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NATO planned discussions on a major leadership change, with Dutch diplomat Jaap de Hoop Scheffer's term as NATO secretary-general running out Aug. 1.

Turkey has raised objections to the front-running candidate, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Turkey, mainly Muslim, looks "negatively" on Rasmussen because of his defense of Danish newspaper cartoons lampooning Islam in 2005, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday.