NMATO summit

NATO will be leaning on Pakistan's Zadari to re-open NATO supply routes.
NATO summit discusses 

Afghanistan withdrawal

Troop withdrawal top of the summit's agenda as thousands of 

anti-war demonstrators march in Chicago.

Al Jazeera,

20 May, 2012

Leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have gathered in Chicago for a summit that will be dominated by the withdrawal of forces in Afghanistan

US President Barack Obama opened the summit in his home town, Chicago, on Sunday, a day after leaders of the eight major industrialised nations, or G8, tackled Europe's debt crisis.

The aim of the NATO summit is to agree on a common stance as the alliance prepares to hand over security duties to Afghan forces at the end of 2014.

More than 50 leaders are expected to attend the NATO meeting.

Among them are heads of state and government from the 28 NATO countries, as well as Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, and Asif Ali Zardari, his Pakistani counterpart.

Meanwhile, thousands of protesters gathered in Chicago, in a mostly peaceful march led by a group of Iraq War veterans who symbolically gave back their military medals.

Scuffles with police broke out as a group of black-clad demonstrators tried to break away from the march and move towards the summit location.

Police estimated the crowd at 2,500 to 3,000 people, although media estimated larger crowds, in what was the biggest rally so far in the week leading up to the NATO summit.

'Hardship ahead'

Obama said that the world was behind his strategy to end the war in Afghanistan but warned there would be days of hardship ahead.

Obama also said as he met Karzai that the United States recognised the "hardship" Afghanistan had been through, adding its people "desperately want peace and security."

"Afghanistan will be no longer a burden on the shoulders of our friends in the international community, on the shoulders of the United States and our other allies.

The summit will highlight Afghanistan's strides towards taking charge of its own security.

Karzai said it was important to complete a security transition to his Afghan forces by 2014 so that the country would no longer be a "burden" to the international community.

Karzai said it was important to complete the security transition and withdrawal of foreign combat troops from Afghanistan that the summit will ratify.

"Afghanistan will be no longer a burden on the shoulders of our friends in the international community, on the shoulders of the United States and our other allies," said Karzai.

The new French President, Francois Hollande, has promised to pull out the country's forces by the end of this year.

He has said an extremely limited number of soldiers would remain to train Afghan forces and bring back equipment beyond 2012.

NATO's secretary general said he was optimistic that the international community will continue to finance the Afghan security forces.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen said supporting the Afghan forces is less expensive than deploying NATO troops.

Fogh Rasmussen said that the international community in general has a responsibility and interest in ensuring that Afghan forces take full responsibility for security after 2014 to avoid terrorist safe havens being re-established.

Some nations, including the US, Australia, Britain, and Germany, have made pledges to an international fund set up to help Afghan forces after the NATO pullout.

Al Jazeera's Patty Culhane, reporting from Chicago said: "US officials are not saying what they will be pledging, as it seems they want other countries to pledge initially."

The US is expected to pay half of an estimated $4bn needed every year.

Pakistan pressed

A last-minute addition to the list of leaders at the carefully choreographed meeting is Zardari of Pakistan, whose western tribal areas provide shelter to fighters attacking Karzai's government and NATO forces.

Zardari may encounter friction in interactions with NATO leaders who have been pressing Islamabad to reopen routes used to supply NATO soldiers in Afghanistan.

Pakistan shut those routes in protest when US aircraft killed 24 Pakistani soldiers along the Afghan border in November.

It is unclear whether a deal reopening those roads will occur this weekend as US officials had hoped earlier in the week.

NATO will use the summit to announce a milestone in the effort to provide a pan-European missile defence system, which has now has reached "interim capability."

It will also formally endorse an agreement for 14 countries to jointly purchase five US made unmanned drone aircraft.

Heavy security

The summit is taking place amid heavy security in Chicago

Three men were charged with terrorism on Saturday in an alleged plot to attack President Barack Obama's campaign headquarters, police stations, banks and the mayor's home with an arsenal of weapons that included beer bottles filled with gasoline, swords, a hunting bow and throwing stars.

A fourth man faces terrorism charges in a separate plot to toss Molotov cocktails during protests against the NATO summit