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Gates presses allies to do more against Libya

BRUSSELS — Defense Secretary Robert Gates pointedly prodded five allied nations Wednesday to share more of the burden of the NATO-led air campaign against Libya, but none committed to doing more, senior American officials said.

At his final NATO meeting before retiring at the end of this month, Gates said the additional help was not required to continue the air campaign for another 90 days — an extension welcomed by all NATO countries — but was a matter of fairness in an alliance built on the principle of shared burdens, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal NATO deliberations.

The five countries Gates named are Germany, Poland, Spain, Turkey and Netherlands, according to officials familiar with the Pentagon chief’s presentation inside the closed-door meeting of alliance defense ministers.

Gates said three countries that already are flying noncombat missions — Spain, Turkey and the Netherlands — should join in strike missions against ground targets. And he said two that are not participating at all militarily — Germany and Poland — should join in some form, the officials said.

Those officials said no country asked that the U.S. do more.

By singling out countries, Gates was putting longstanding allies on the spot at a time when NATO leaders are emphasizing their solidarity in the Libya mission.

The campaign’s main aim is to implement a U.N. Security Council mandate to protect Libyan civilians from attacks by government forces, and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters Wednesday the alliance is well on its way to fulfilling the mission and paving the way for a post-Moammar Gadhafi period.

The NATO nations and Arab partners participating in the air campaign were meeting separately Thursday in the United Arab emirates.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is expected to tell the gathering that the U.S. will continue to provide military logistics support and emergency backup help for the campaign, but will resist any entreaties to expand the U.S. role in other respects. She will also hedge U.S. engagement with a rebel-affiliated group seeking to set up an alternative government. Clinton has met with representatives of the group and the U.S. has eased sanctions on Libya to free up money for the would-be civilian government, but has not formally recognized it as legitimate.

There currently are eight NATO members participating in air strikes in Libya: The U.S., Britain, France, Belgium, Canada, Norway, Denmark and Italy. Denmark and Norway in particular are contributing disproportionately more than others, given the size of their militaries, U.S. officials said, and both are feeling the stress on their aircraft and crews as well as a financial strain.

These stresses, combined with the refusal of some alliance members to participate at all in offensive operations, are one reason U.S. officials believe NATO is excessively dependent on the United States for its advanced military power.

President Barack Obama chose to change the U.S. military intervention to a secondary role after an initial period of air and naval bombardment that established a no-fly zone over the North African country and opened the door to a sustained NATO-led air campaign.

Obama has declined to put U.S. warplanes back into an offensive role — aside from a relatively small number of planes that are targeting Libya’s air defenses. But a few weeks ago the U.S. provided an additional nine aerial refueling planes to enable NATO to accelerate its bombing, the U.S. officials said.

In a separate presentation to the meeting, NATO’s top commander, U.S. Navy Adm. James Stavridis, said he has enough aircraft and munitions to continue the air campaign for another 90 days, the officials said. Gates’ point to the defense ministers was that the alliance must more equitably share the risk and costs associated of engaging in combat — regardless of how long the campaign lasts.

The U.S. is contributing about 75 percent of the aerial refueling capacity for the campaign and 70-80 percent of the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capability, U.S. officials said.

Gates in recent days has expressed public optimism that Gadhafi’s days as Libyan leader are numbered and that NATO will prevail. He told U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan earlier this week, “We’re seeing signs that the regime is getting shakier by the day.”

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Klapper reported from Washington.