By Abdul Hadi Mayar

    KABUL, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- After its Parliamentary Assembly's meeting in Edinburgh, NATO seems to have moved further closer to a final decision on troops surge in Afghanistan.

    Though no formal statement was issued at the end of the meeting, the speeches of NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband manifested what is on the mind of the alliance leaders.

    The five-day gathering, attended by hundreds of parliamentarians from the 28 member-countries, ended on Tuesday. Non-member countries - including South Korea, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Russia - also attended the meeting.

    Although the meeting pondered over a host of issues, particularly the future challenges to the military alliance, yet the focal point remained Afghanistan.

    In his keynote address, Rasmussen encouraged NATO and partner governments 'to make more military resources available,' in particular for the NATO Training Mission Afghanistan (NTM-A).

    He also called on allies and partners to see what more they can do on the civilian side.

    "Extra military resources from NATO and its partners in ISAF are not a panacea," he said.

    "More also needs to be done on the civilian side to boost the Afghan government's own capacity."

    The speech by British Foreign Secretary was more elaborate and unfurled a three-point agenda of his government for Afghanistan.

    These points included integration of insurgent Taliban into the Afghan national mainstream, building the capacity of the Afghan government to handle the situation and give up reliance on foreign forces, and enlisting the support of neighboring countries, particularly Pakistan to restore peace in Afghanistan.

    "Britain wants to find a way to allow the vast majority of Taliban fighters who are not Islamic extremists to reintegrate into Afghan society," he said in his address on the last day of the five-day meeting.

    He said that for reintegrating Taliban fighters into Afghan society, Britain and her partners needed to reassure Afghan civilians that they faced a stable future.

    Miliband said that the Afghan insurgency was not a 'monolith' and that Britain and her allies needed to show Taliban fighters that there was 'a route back into society'.

    "Some Afghan Taliban may be committed to global jihad. But the vast majority is not. Their primary commitment is to tribe and to locality. Our goal is not a fight to the death. It is to demonstrate clearly that they cannot win, and to provide a way back into their communities for those who are prepared to live peacefully."

    Miliband said Britain supported plans for a "National Reintegration Organization" that would help former combatants return to their homes.

    Miliband insisted on strengthening of the Afghan government to enable it to independently tackle challenges in the country.

    "Britain wants to strengthen governance in Afghanistan. This would involve training, empowering and monitoring those responsible for governing the provinces and districts in the country.

    He also said that Afghanistan's neighbors, particularly Pakistan, must be prepared to play a constructive role in Afghanistan's future."

    "The opportunity is to squeeze the life out of the terrorist threat from both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. That will happen only if Pakistan and the international community develop a new relationship based on recognition of interdependence and shared interests," he said.

    Without making direct reference to troop surge in Afghanistan, Miliband said London supported the prosecution of a serious counter-insurgency effort in Afghanistan.

    "We do not see that as an alternative to counterterrorism but as the best means to achieve it," he said, however stressing that he did not see the conflict there as a war 'without end'.

    Miliband's remarks came in the wake of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's speech in London wherein he insisted on a political exercise in Afghanistan that enable the international coalition to shift the security responsibility to the Afghan government and fix a timetable for withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan.

    While the NATO Defense Ministers' meeting in Slovakia last month had shown support for troop surge in Afghanistan, the fresh meeting has added more elements to that, calling for backing military action by political means, and insisting on training of Afghan forces to ensure 'withdrawal of forces' from the country.