NATO says it will not intervene in discussions in the Netherlands over future Dutch military involvement in Afghanistan. But it says it believes the best way forward is a smaller Dutch mission.

James Appathurai, NATO Spokesman, said, "Just in the last few months, 36 countries have increased their contribution, we now have 44 countries in this overall NATO led operation. So the general trend is upwards, the solidarity is very strong and we are very happy with that. NATO cannot and does not want to intervene in internal discussions of individual nations, we won't do that here as well but certainly we want to keep this as a team effort."