Iceland has offered to take over coordination of Kabul's international airport for the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, a NATO source said Wednesday.Iceland, the only NATO member without an army, has led a multinational force managing Pristina airport since March as part of the NATO-led peacekeeping mission (KFOR) in the UN-administered province of Kosovo.
Reykjavik has proposed to do the same in Kabul after Germany expressed its intention to end its management of the airport in February, a NATO official who asked not to be named said.
NATO took over the 5,300-strong UN-mandated International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan in August.
ISAF has recently had contacts with the World Bank and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to discuss the development of Kabul's airport, the NATO official said.
The UN last month authorized ISAF forces to deploy outside of the capital in an attempt to provide more security ahead of elections next year.
The country was left in tatters by two decades of bloodshed that accompanied Soviet occupation, civil war and the rise of the hardline Taliban, which was toppled by the United States in late 2001.
NATO ambassadors also welcomed the recent decision by Norway to send an extra 200 soldiers to provide protection to the 500-member Loya Jirga, or grand assembly, which is due to debate and adopt a new constitution in December.
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