NATO Asks Jordan to Train Afghan Police

Jordan is studying a request from NATO to train members of the Afghan police, government spokesman Nabil Sharif said on Wednesday.

"NATO has asked Jordan to train Afghan policemen and Jordan is now studying the request," Sharif told reporters at a news conference, without elaborating.

The announcement came three days after a visit to Jordan by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, during which he held talks with King Abdullah II and senior officials.

Jordan has trained thousands of Iraqi and Palestinian soldiers and policemen.

It acknowledged it had a counterterrorism role in Afghanistan after the death in a January suicide bombing of a senior intelligence officer and member of the royal family.

His death along with seven US Central Intelligence Agency personnel spotlighted Jordan's role in the international coalition in the war-hit country.

Admiral James Stavridis, head of the US military's European Command, said on Tuesday that NATO countries are failing to live up to promises to provide hundreds of personnel to train Afghanistan's fledgling security forces.

"It is absolutely correct to say that NATO has fallen short in providing these vital trainers," Stavridis told a Senate hearing.

He said that the United States wanted fellow NATO member states to contribute 1,278 trainers but so far they have offered only 541.