won't have my support ...

NATO chief warns of higher casualties
The Associated Press, BRUSSELS (Apr 26, 2006)

... De Hoop Scheffer acknowledged that increasing violence could hurt public backing for the mission. "Might there be difficult discussions with public opinion? Most certainly," he said. However he added allied governments were aware of the problem and would work to bolster public support. ...

NATO chief warns of higher casualties
The Associated Press, BRUSSELS (Apr 26, 2006)

Governments in NATO countries must prepare public opinion for the risk of more casualties in Afghanistan as their troops move into the volatile southern region in an expanding security mission, the alliance's secretary general warned yesterday.

"It is a dangerous mission, but NATO cannot afford to fail," Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told a news conference. "Realism demands that there will be more incidents, there will be more casualties, but NATO will stand firm."

De Hoop Scheffer briefed reporters before a meeting of NATO foreign ministers tomorrow and Friday in Sofia, Bulgaria. Canada is being represented by Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay.

The Afghan mission is expected to loom large at the gathering, along with the crisis in Darfur and Iran's nuclear standoff with the West.

Attacks on foreign forces in Afghanistan have mounted in recent months as NATO troops have been moving into the southern region to expand their mission from the relatively calm north and west. About 6,000 mainly British, Canadian and Dutch troops are due to move into the south by late July when NATO takes over responsibility for the region from a separate U.S.-led coalition force.

Smaller contingents from Denmark, Estonia and Romania will also move into the south, along with U.S. and Australian troops under NATO command. Four Canadian soldiers were killed Saturday in southern Afghanistan by a roadside bomb in the deadliest attack on Canada's forces in the country.

De Hoop Scheffer acknowledged that increasing violence could hurt public backing for the mission.

"Might there be difficult discussions with public opinion? Most certainly," he said. However he added allied governments were aware of the problem and would work to bolster public support.

In Sofia, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to push for NATO to play a more robust role in Darfur, the restive Sudanese region where African peacekeepers have failed to halt political and ethnic violence which had killed more than 180,000 people and driven more than three million from their homes.

Rice is also likely to seek a common position with the allies on Iran, which is refusing to back down in the face of a United Nations Security Council deadline that it suspend enrichment of uranium, a process that can produce fuel for nuclear reactors or material for warheads.

Iran was not on NATO's official agenda but is expected to come up at an informal dinner tomorrow night where Rice will meet with her counterparts from Canada and 31 European countries from NATO and the European Union for free-ranging talks on world affairs.