Leaders of the 28-member bloc gather in the Portuguese capital Lisbon on Friday for a two-day meeting that Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen says will "determine the blueprint of the Alliance in the coming decade".

Afghanistan, where NATO troops form the bulk of the 150,000-strong, 48-nation International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), is likely to dominate talks, with the nine-year Taliban-led insurgency showing few signs of abating.

NATO backs Afghan President Hamid Karzai's wish for foreign forces to begin handing over powers to his country's police and military from July next year, with a view to a full transition by the end of 2014.

A draft of the joint declaration to be presented at the summit and seen by AFP reaffirms previous pledges on a wide range of cooperation between the alliance and the Afghan government.

It also indicates that foreign powers accept that they will support Afghanistan for the foreseeable future, amid claims that an announcement that US troops could start coming home from mid-2011 had been misinterpreted.

"Transition does not imply a diminution of NATO's efforts to help the Afghan people build a durable and just peace," according to the document.

Instead, it said the start of the transition process was an "appropriate opportunity" for both sides "to renew and build an enduring partnership which complements the ISAF security mission and continues beyond it".

The declaration also provides for "a continuation of the NATO Training Mission" which is seen as vital to the handover.

NATO's civilian spokesman in Afghanistan, Dominic Medley, on Sunday emphasised that they were not abandoning Afghanistan, which has endured nearly three decades of bitter conflict and civil strife.

"The alliance's commitment is for the long term and the military commitment is for the long term," he told a news conference in Kabul.

"As the combat mission moves towards a more supporting role and beyond, NATO will have an enduring political commitment to Afghanistan."

Focus on the timetable for the departure of foreign forces has been building since US President Barack Obama ordered an extra 30,000 troops to Afghanistan to crush the Taliban offensive and said the drawdown could begin in July 2011.

The top US commander in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, has reportedly drawn up a small list of regions where Afghan forces could be given responsibility for security within six months.

Senior US government officials now appear to see 2014 as a more realistic goal for withdrawal, amid claims that Obama's stated aim that the pull-out could start next year had handed the Taliban a propaganda victory.

US Republican Senator John McCain said in Kabul last week that the president's statement "sent out the wrong message" and that it "encourages our enemies and it discourages our plans".

"We need to have the president of the United States state unequivocally that it (the start of any withdrawal) will be solely condition-based," he added.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates and the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen both said this month that some powers could be handed over next year but 2014 was a more feasible goal to complete transition.

Washington is also looking at the "pace" of the transition, with a strategy review expected by the year end or January.

Other NATO members have also recognised that their forces will remain in Afghanistan beyond next year and even 2014, particularly to train tens of thousands of police and army recruits and support the government in Kabul.

"This (NATO's commitment) is an important signal for the Afghan people and important signal the alliance is sending to the Taliban," Medley told reporters. "There will be no vacuum as a result of the transition period.

"On the contrary, NATO will stay here as long as it takes to finish the job in Afghanistan."

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