More than 6,000 troops due to join coalition forces fighting Afghanistan's insurgency have been delayed by the aviation shutdown in Europe caused by a volcanic ash cloud, NATO said Wednesday.

A total of 5,400 US troops and 1,100 coalition soldiers were due to arrive in Afghanistan from Europe this week, NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) told AFP.

"The delays are not having any impact on operations," said ISAF public affairs officer Sarah Hawke.

"Most of those delays had been coming through Europe. Many (troops) also come through Kuwait and there are no problems there," she said.

Some supply deliveries — everything from ammunition to food — had also been delayed, she said, adding the hold-ups had had no obvious impact.

NATO and the United States have 126,000 troops in the country, with deployments being boosted almost daily to reach 150,000 in August.

The extra troops are part of a counter-insurgency strategy aimed at intensifying efforts to overcome the Taliban, bring a speedy end to the war — now in its ninth year — and boost Afghanistan's own security capacity.

British media reported that a British soldier had been flown to the United States after being severely wounded while fighting in Afghanistan, as the aviation crisis halted casualty evacuations to Britain.

The Guardian newspaper also said around 200 British soldiers due to end their six-month deployment had been stranded in Helmand, one of the most violent regions of the war-torn country, due to the aviation crisis.

Lieutenant Colonel James Carr-Smith, spokesman for Task Force Helmand, said "things are certainly moving" following the reopening of British air space and airports.

"It is having absolutely no effect on our operational effectiveness" or on casualties, which are an "absolute priority," Carr-Smith told AFP.

"It will take some time before we have normal service between the UK and Afghanistan in terms of moving troops and supplies in and out," he said.

Other victims of the Icelandic eruption included Afghanistan's cricket team, held up in Dubai en route to the Twenty20 World Cup in the West Indies, local media said.

Afghanistan are pooled with India and South Africa for the group stage of the tournament, a berth secured by beating Ireland and the United Arab Emirates in February.

The team would not make it to the West Indies in time for their warm-up matches ahead of the April 30 start of the tournament, the Afghanistan Times newspaper said.

Scheduled matches against Trinidad and Tobago had been cancelled but the team was holding training sessions while cooling their heels in Dubai, it said.

earlier related report

US Afghanistan commander defends Karzai
Berlin (AFP) April 21, 2010 –

The commander of US and NATO troops in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, said Wednesday he was convinced that President Hamid Karzai was making the "right efforts" to stabilise his country.

Following a damaging recent rift between Washington and Kabul, the US general said the Afghan president had impressed him on a joint visit to the northern city of Kunduz this month.

"After my visit to Kunduz with President Karzai, I became convinced that he is focused on taking the right efforts, particularly on governance, that will support the security and development efforts in the year ahead," he said.

"I think that President Karzai is taking appropriate steps for a political leader to try to bring all the parts of his population together… to participate in the political process."

McChrystal was speaking to reporters in Berlin after talks with German Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg.

Tensions ran high earlier this month after Karzai claimed that foreign powers had orchestrated fraud in last year's elections. But top US officials have moved to defuse the row.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Washington considered the president a "reliable partner" while Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Karzai had "a very positive relationship" with McChrystal.

McChrystal's Berlin visit was originally scheduled for Monday after a stop in Paris but was postponed due to the volcanic ash cloud from Iceland which hobbled European air traffic.

He called Germany, which has about 4,400 troops serving in the north of the strife-wracked country, a "critical partner in bringing peace to the people of Afghanistan".

According to press reports, McChrystal wanted to see Berlin commit to making "an important contribution" to a planned US-led offensive against Taliban forces later this year in northern Afghanistan.

But sources who took part in the talks said they did not touch on the deployment of more German "combat troops".

Germany has the third largest contingent in Afghanistan after the United States and Britain. Parliament approved another 850 soldiers in February, following US President Barack Obama's decision to send 30,000 more.

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