NATO cannot afford to turn its back on Afghanistan: Rasmussen

Budapest: A NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan would lead to a strengthening of al-Qaeda and cause instability to spread through the region, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Thursday in the Hungarian capital.

Rasmussen spoke of the possibility of a gradual handover of power to Afghan security forces beginning as early as next year, the state news agency MTI reported.
The NATO head was speaking at a conference in the Hungarian parliament building on the day Afghanistan`s President Hamid Karzai was sworn in for a controversial second term in office.

Hungary`s foreign minister Peter Balazs called for closer cooperation between NATO and the European Union during the conference to mark 60 years of the military alliance.
IANS