NATO to keep rotating command in Afghan south

By Andrew Gray

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - NATO will continue to rotate command of its troops in the violent South of Afghanistan despite U.S. generals' concerns that the arrangement disrupts operations, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.

To minimize problems caused by the changeovers, each nation with major troop contingents in the South will take command for one year rather than the current nine months, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters.

The announcement appeared to end a debate within NATO that some diplomats saw as an attempt by the United States to take charge of southern Afghanistan, the scene of the heaviest fighting between allied troops and Taliban insurgents.

The new arrangement does mean the United States will command NATO forces in the South -- but not until late 2010. The Netherlands and Britain will each have a year in charge first after Canada's command ends this November.

"We believe this new arrangement -- and our allies clearly do as well, because they've agreed to it -- will provide greater predictability, continuity, stability in this volatile but vitally important region of Afghanistan," Morrell said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates agreed the new arrangement with his Dutch and British counterparts, he said.

Earlier on Wednesday, U.S. Army Gen. Dan McNeill, the commander of the 50,000-strong NATO-led force in Afghanistan, said he favored talks to end the rotating command in Regional Command South, also known as RC-South.

McNeill said Afghan security forces had trouble adapting to different commands with different ways of operating.  Continued...