KRAKOW (Poland), Feb 20: Nato is examining whether to set up a permanent military force in eastern Europe to encourage regional allies to send combat troops to Afghanistan, the alliance’s top civilian official said on Friday.The idea, proposed by Britain to ease concerns in eastern Europe about Russian belligerence since its war with Georgia, would see 3,000 troops drawn from the Nato Response Force, a contingent for use in the world’s hotspots.

“I got a positive reception from many around the table on this idea,” Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told reporters in Krakow, southern Poland, after informal talks between allied defence ministers.

He said that top alliance commander US General John Craddock “will now elaborate ideas on the Nato Response Force in conjunction with this solidarity force.” Scheffer said he hoped that the ministers would be able to take decisions on the force when they next meet formally in Brussels in June.

In the Financial Times newspaper, British Defence Secretary John Hutton said the move could persuade nations to send troops to Afghanistan, by offering them assurances that there were enough troops to defend alliance territory.

“I hope it might make it easier for Nato to do more in Afghanistan, certain now in the knowledge that there is a dedicated homeland security force that will have no other call on its priorities than European homeland security,” he said.

He said the proposal could resolve the long-running debate about the rarely-used Nato Response Force (NRF), which is meant to involve some 25,000 troops but exists largely only on paper.

Plans to deploy the NRF had stalled because Nato members could not agree whether it should be for homeland security or take a more active role, he said.—AFP