V.S.: verdeeldheid over Afghanistan bedreigt NAVO (en)
The United States has urged European leaders as well as the public to be more supportive of NATO-led mission in Afghanistan, a cornerstone of the US war on terror, or the alliance will be "effectively destroyed" by a failure in the central Asian country.
Speaking at an international security conference in Munich (10 February), US secretary of defence Robert Gates said he was "concerned that many people on this continent may not comprehend the magnitude of the direct threat to European security."
Mr Gates made a clear connection between Europe's own security and NATO deployment in Afghanistan, while urging European leaders to reiterate to European citizens the importance of the NATO mission to the country.
He described current European public support for the mission - established by the UN Security Council in December 2001 - as "weak".
"So now I would like to add my voice to those of many allied leaders on the continent and speak directly to the people of Europe. The threat posed by violent Islamic extremism is real, and it is not going to go away," the US cabinet member added, according to the New York Times.
He pointed to radical islamist attacks in Spain, the UK as well as to foiled attacks on German and Belgian soil.
The NATO-led mission - the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) - arrived in Afghanistan in 2002, shortly after Washington launched its military campaign there in response to the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States.
ISAF is the alliance's first and largest ground operation outside Europe's borders. It consists of over 40,000 troops from 39 countries, including the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland.
The head of NATO, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, regularly urges all 26 member states to step up their efforts there. The Afghanistan mission - in need of a further 7,500 soldiers - is widely seen as the test of the alliance's role in the post-cold war era.
In addition, some countries such as Germany apply operational constraints on their troops and refuse to transfer them from the relatively calm north to the more turbulent south of the country.
Recently, Canada warned it would withdraw its troops from Afghanistan if the Brussels-based military organisation fails to send reinforcements to the south.
Mr Gates, for his part, said: "we must not - we cannot - become a two-tiered alliance of those who are willing to fight and those who are not."
"Such a development, with all its implications for collective security, would effectively destroy the alliance," he concluded.
But the UK's ambassador to NATO, Stewart Eldon, told the BBC it was a "mistake" to say Afghanistan would make or break the alliance.