Rumsfeld- Peace force won't grow

WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Friday he sees little chance of expanding the international security force now keeping order in Afghanistan's capital.

"The line of countries volunteering to step up and do that is a very short one, which suggests to me that that is not going to happen," he told a Pentagon news conference. He said it was likely that the current force of 4,500 foreign troops, led by Britain, will remain in Kabul until the end of the year.

Rumsfeld said there is little enthusiasm among Western nations to expand the peacekeeping effort, little money from donor nations to foot the bill and little immediate need to go beyond Kabul.

"The situation in Afghanistan is relatively peaceful," he said. "Now I use that word 'relatively.' That is to say, there is not a serious security problem generally in the country."

Meanwhile, numerous al-Qaida fighters fleeing battles near Shah-e-Kot are believed to have escaped into Pakistan, said a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

It is unclear how many of the terrorist group's fighters fleeing the U.S.-led crackdown named Operation Anaconda evaded Pakistani troops to cross the border, the official said.

Gen. Tommy Franks, the U.S. commander of the war in Afghanistan, recently described the security situation as "murky and troublesome."

He and Rumsfeld both have said the preferred approach is to help the Afghans develop a national army that could take over the internal security mission.

The United States has refused to join the British-led force, although American combat forces already in Afghanistan will come to the peacekeepers' aid if they are attacked.

Interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai repeatedly has called for a larger peacekeeping force that would deploy outside Kabul, and humanitarian groups have said there is an urgent need to improve security.

"An expanded peacekeeping presence is also the only means to restrain outside influences and allow the country's internal political process and security forces time to develop," said Gareth Evans, president of the International Crisis Group, a private multinational group.