ROME - The United States should wind down military operations in Afghanistan in favour of the NATO-led ISAF force there, Italy's foreign minister said Wednesday, citing an "unacceptable" civilian death toll.
"It is clear that the superposition of the ISAF and Enduring Freedom missions ... very often creates conditions in which military operations are not coordinated effectively and become dangerous for the civilian population," Massimo D'Alema told a parliamentary comittee.
Some 11,000 troops including 8,000 Americans, 1,000 Australians and 200 South Koreans are taking part in Enduring Freedom, which was launched in October 2001 against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
"We think it would be advisable to end" Enduring Freedom, D'Alema said.
The UN mission in Kabul estimated in early July that some 600 civilians had been killed since the start of the year, more than half by Afghan and international forces.
"It is essential for military activities to be coordinated in such a way as to reduce this kind of occurrence," D'Alema said, quoted by the ANSA news agency.
"The civilian casualties resulting from recent operations against the Taliban are morally unacceptable. They are a real disaster politically and have created major tensions between the Afghan government and the international forces," he said.
Enduring Freedom is now concentrated mainly in war-torn eastern Afghanistan.
NATO has led the International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF), with contingents from 37 countries totalling around 39,000 men, since 2003. It has been in charge of almost all international operations in the country since the east came under its authority in late 2006.
Italy's some 2,500 men are mainly based in a calmer area in the west.
An international conference in Rome early this month on rebuilding the justice system in Afghanistan was dominated by debate over mounting civilian casualties there.
07/25/2007 15:00 GMT