Nato opens summit to set Afghan war handover date

LISBON: US President Barack Obama and his Nato allies met on Friday to agree a plan to pass command of the Afghan war to Kabul by 2014 and erect an anti-missile shield over Europe.

As another Nato soldier fell to an Afghan bomb attack, taking the toll for this year to 654, leaders began a two-day summit in Lisbon dominated by war in Afghanistan and planning new defences against future foes.

"We will take decisions which will frame the future of our alliance," Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told the leaders of the 28 allies.

"These decisions will reaffirm the shared commitment by all our countries to the freedom and security of our citizens," he continued.

"This commitment is the bedrock of our alliance and it is upheld every day by the more than 100,000 men and women who serve in Nato operations from Afghanistan to Kosovo and from the Horn of Africa to the Mediterranean sea."

Earlier Obama outlined his proposed timetable for pulling out the bulk of US forces from Afghanistan and handing control to local commanders.

In several European newspapers, Obama wrote that Washington would start to reduce its troop numbers in Afghanistan in July next year but pledged that "as Afghans stand up and take the lead, they will not stand alone."

The Lisbon summit has three distinct stages.

First the 28 Nato powers will meet to thrash out their own strategic goals and agree a plan on missile defence.

Then they will be joined by Karzai and the other allies who make up the 48-strong coalition in Afghanistan.

Finally allied leaders will meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev for the first Nato-Russia summit since 2002.