NATO defence ministers are meeting in Budapest with Afghanistan and Somalia topping the agenda at the start of the informal talks. Afghan defence minister Abdel Rahim Wardak approached NATO for help in fighting the country's booming opium trade, the profits of which are funding the Taliban insurgency.
The US and Britain are in favour of using NATO troops to eradicate the opium trade. Germany, Italy and Spain resist changing the mission of the International Security Assistance Force. Separately, the NATO defence ministers agreed to send ships to help combat piracy off the Horn of Africa.
(Deutsche NATO envoys to visit Georgia ...
Russian invasion of Georgia inadmissible - Czech ForMin ... Welle)
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