Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pressed other NATO countries to send more soldiers to Afghanistan after Canada threatened to withdraw and Germany rejected a request for troops.

Rice met with Brown and Foreign Secretary David Miliband in London today. She told reporters traveling with her that Iran, Iraq and Kosovo were on the agenda in addition to Afghanistan.

Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan are increasing the scope of their operations against the North Atlantic Treaty Organization six years after an invasion toppled the Islamist movement's regime. The alliance's defense ministers gather later this week in Vilnius, Lithuania, to discuss ways to bolster their 37,000 troops in the country.

``What we are looking for at the NATO summit is a determination on the part of all our allies to make sure the burden sharing is fair,'' Brown said in Parliament today before meeting Rice. ``We need proper burden sharing, not only in terms of personnel, but also in terms of troops and equipment.''

Rice echoed those remarks when speaking to journalists after her meeting with Miliband.

``We obviously need to share the burden in the alliance so that everybody is contributing,'' Rice said at Lancaster House in London. ``I do think that the alliance is facing a real test.''

Britain said today its next troop rotation will take place in April, though the number of soldiers it has on the ground will remain unchanged at about 7,800. Patrick Mercer, a lawmaker for the opposition Conservative Party, said that means U.K. commanders won't get the extra 600 soldiers they've requested.

Canadian Losses

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper told Brown and President George W. Bush last month that he would withdraw his nation's forces from the mission if other members of NATO don't provide more help in the southern region of Kandahar.

Canada, with 2,500 soldiers in the region, has lost 78 in combat, a higher proportion of casualties than any other country in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. Germany's 3,500 soldiers are restricted mainly to the quieter north of the country, and France's force of 1,290 is deployed mainly in the capital, Kabul.

The German government last week rejected a U.S. request to provide more troops in southern Afghanistan, saying that ministers were ``surprised'' by the demand.

`Not Negotiable'

Chancellor Angela Merkel's mandate from lawmakers limits military involvement to northern Afghanistan, her office said on Feb. 1. The terms of German involvement in the country, she said, are ``not negotiable.''

Under Germany's post-World War II constitution, any change of Germany's presence would require a new or an adjusted mandate from lawmakers in the lower house of Parliament. Most German voters reject the idea of sending more soldiers to Afghanistan.

Germany's military may also lack the basic equipment that they would need to expand their mission into the more violent south of the country, where troops from the Netherlands, the U.K., Canada and the U.S. are doing the bulk of the fighting.

``Great shortfalls have been exposed in the federal army's equipment that urgently need to be tackled'' before German troops can engage Taliban forces, Harald Kujat, the former chairman of NATO's military committee and Germany's top general between 2000 and 2002, said today in an interview from Berlin.

The U.S. and Britain are the biggest contributors to the NATO effort in Afghanistan. The U.S. has 15,000 troops under NATO command there, and another 11,000 troops in the country outside NATO command. Last month it pledged another 3,200 Marines to the allied force.

Divisions in NATO

Both countries today sought to downplay divisions within NATO. In Parliament, Brown welcomed promises from France and Spain to send more troops. Rice warned against denigrating European contributions to the effort.

``There are certain allies that are in much more dangerous parts of the country, and we believe very strongly that there ought to be a sharing of that burden throughout the alliance,'' Rice told reporters on her plane, according to a transcript of the conversation released by the U.S. embassy in London. ``That said, I think we want not to also dismiss the contributions that are being made by all alliance members.''

Rice also told reporters that the U.S. would prefer to have a European to take on the role of international envoy to Afghanistan to coordinate aid and counterinsurgency efforts there. Britain's Paddy Ashdown withdrew his candidacy from the post in January because of lack of support from the Afghan government.

``There are good reasons given the way that the international effort has unfolded that it would probably be more likely a European,'' Rice said. ``I'm not saying that we rule out anyone.''

Rice will also meet with Ronald Cohen, co-founder of Apax Partners Worldwide LLP, while in London.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Deen in London at markdeen@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: February 6, 2008 11:37 EST