French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner launched the idea at an EU summit last week.

He made the case again at two days of talks with his European Union counterparts at Hluboka castle in the southern Czech Republic, which were winding up Saturday.

Kouchner himself recognised that several of his EU colleagues had reservations about the project of sending armed gendarmes to train Afghan police.

"They are absolutely right" to so, he said late Friday, stressing that questions remained about how the proposal would fit into the existing international efforts in Afghanistan.

"Should it be part of (the European police mission) EUPol or side-by-side? Should it be linked to NATO?"

The whole problem is to assure the gendarmes' own security, as Kouchner has said they would be working "on the ground, not in the schools," one European diplomat said Saturday.

That could involve support from the international force in Afghanistan run by NATO, while the EU would see such a force working in coordination with the existing European EUPol mission to train police, which is expected to number 400 officers by June, he said.

"There would have to be a mechanism between EU and NATO which would assure the EU's visibility," he added.

But Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, whose country already has gendarmes in Afghanistan and which could be asked to contribute to the mooted force, stressed the project would "complicate" things and that it was necessary to avoid initiatives that are not properly "coordinated".

His Swedish counterpart Carl Bildt underlined the difficulty in working out "how to coordinate (the force) with NATO and the European police mission," while remaining optimistic that a solution could be found.

Bildt said those problems could be resolved ahead of a NATO summit on the French-German border on April 3-4, where Afghanistan will be a central topic.

earlier related report
Analysis: EU welcomes new Afghan strategy
U.S. President Barack Obama's new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan was met with almost universal approval in Europe, but nations there will have to contribute a lot more to actually make it work.

Obama on Friday announced his new Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy, with its key goal to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat" al-Qaida by destroying its safe haven in the region.

The strategy includes sending 4,000 additional troops to Afghanistan "later this spring," on top of the 17,000 Obama has already added to the region. But the new plan is much more than just boosting personnel.

"It represents a major change from the top-down neo-conservative approach," said John Hulsman, a Berlin-based trans-Atlantic expert who is president and co-founder of John C. Hulsman Enterprises, a foreign policy consulting firm. "The key to it is: America will work with the locals, be it inside or around Afghanistan. I think that finally, we see a real strategy forming that actually has a chance of succeeding."

The plan has been met with almost universal approval in Europe. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Friday it came very close to "European ideas" about the look of the future mission in Afghanistan, and several other officials lauded the plan's cooperational focus.

Obama wants to win over regional powers -- including Iran, India, Russia and China -- to stabilize Afghanistan. The president's special envoy to the region, Richard Holbrooke, is expected to hold frequent bilateral meetings with authorities in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"They are becoming genuine stakeholders in the rebuilding and stabilization process in Afghanistan," Hulsman told United Press International in a telephone interview Friday.

Pakistan has been a source of concern for quite some time, with Obama stating that Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, the world's two most sought-after terrorists, are "almost certainly" hiding in Pakistan, near the border with Afghanistan.

"They have used this mountainous terrain as a safe haven to hide, to train terrorists, to communicate with followers, to plot attacks and to send fighters to support the insurgency in Afghanistan," Obama said. For America and its allies in Europe, "this border region has become the most dangerous place in the world."

The new strategy includes a bold bid to stabilize Pakistan: Obama wants to send some $1.5 billion in direct support to Pakistan every year over the next five years -- "resources that will build schools, roads and hospitals and strengthen Pakistan's democracy," the president said. In turn, Pakistan would have to help smoke out the hideouts of al-Qaida on its territory.

Hulsman said Pakistan has been playing a double game for years, which is now challenged with this Marshall Plan-like aid program. Islamabad should seriously consider taking the money, he said, because it's in the government's interest to finally have stable borders.

"It's a bold move and telling the Pakistanis, 'Hey, we're paying you to do something that's in your own interest,'" Hulsman told UPI. "It's a coalition through money, but the cash spent there would be well-invested if Pakistan ends up being stabilized."

The president's new strategy is also aimed at helping Afghans to help themselves: Washington wants its NATO allies to help boost training of Afghan security forces and help man the so-called civilian surge, which is about sending to the region lawyers, farmers, educational experts or engineers in a bid to build up an economy that, as Obama said Friday, "isn't dominated by illicit drugs."

Several European powers, including Britain, Germany and France, have signaled their willingness to contribute to this civilian surge with personnel and money. And some may even their troop numbers in Afghanistan.

The Times of London quoted a top British military official as saying that part of a 4,000-strong British brigade was "earmarked for Afghanistan." (London has not yet commented on the statement.)

Germany, however, remains unlikely to commit its troops to fighting in the volatile South, which Washington has wanted them to do for years. Because of the Afghanistan mission's controversial nature in Germany, the issue won't see any progress before the country's federal elections, scheduled for this September.

At next weekend's NATO summit in Strasbourg, France, and Kehl, Germany, which German Chancellor Angela Merkel will co-host, Obama will likely sound out any potential German troop changes. Washington won't overtly pressure its European allies on military commitments, but several capitals in Europe know that their hour has come.

"Europe as a whole will have to do more," said Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini.

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