Afghanistan Has Priority Over Iraq, Robertson Says

(Bloomberg) - NATO Secretary-General George Robertson said the alliance must show progress in Afghanistan, its top mission, before a wider role in Iraq to support the U.S. occupation could be considered.

``If you look at the challenge in Afghanistan, it's pretty formidable,'' Robertson told reporters at a breakfast in Washington today. ``We've got to get that right.''

Afghanistan is the alliance's biggest mission, and also the first ever outside of Europe. The current North Atlantic Treaty Organization role in Iraq is limited to logistical support for Polish soldiers occupying a region between Baghdad and Basra in the south.

Robertson spoke a day after the deadly bombing of an Italian base in southern Iraq, an attack that has prompted Japan and South Korea to alter plans to send forces to aid the occupation. Guerrilla warfare is impeding the political and economic recovery of the oil-producing nation.

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