Defence chief 'misquoted' on Nato

The Los Angeles Times had quoted Robert Gates as saying that most Nato forces were not trained in counter-insurgency operations in Afghanistan.

A Dutch official said they now understand that Mr Gates was misquoted.

A Pentagon spokesman said Mr Gates had been expressing concern about the international alliance as a whole.

The Nato-led force has almost 37,000 troops in Afghanistan, including more than 1,500 Dutch soldiers.

'Satisfaction'

"I'm worried we're deploying [military advisors] that are not properly trained and I'm worried we have some military forces that don't know how to do counter-insurgency operations," Mr Gates told the LA Times.

Dutch defence minister Eimert Van Middelkoop summoned the US ambassador in The Hague to explain the comments, and after the meeting a Dutch official said they now understood that Mr Gates was misquoted.

The official said that Washington had expressed its satisfaction with the Dutch, Canadian and British forces in southern Afghanistan.

Earlier, a Pentagon spokesman told the BBC that Mr Gates had not criticised the military of any particular country, but had been expressing concern about the international alliance in Afghanistan as a whole - including the United States.

On Tuesday, President Bush approved the deployment of another 3,000 American soldiers to Afghanistan.