MUNICH, Feb 10, SPA -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gateson Saturday said a skeptical European public needed to beconvinced the fight in Afghanistan was part of combattingthe worldwide terrorist threat, and cautioned that if othercountries did not contribute to the combat mission it couldspell the end of NATO, reported ap. «We must not _ we cannot _ become a two-tiered allianceof those who are willing to fight and those who are not,»he told a gathering of the world's top defense officials ata Munich conference. «Such a development, with all itsimplications for collective security, would effectivelydestroy the alliance.» He said it was incumbent upon NATO leaders to«recapitulate to the people of Europe the importance ofthe Afghanistan mission and its relationship to the widerterrorist threat.» «On a conceptual level, I believe it falls squarelywithin the traditional bounds of the alliance's corepurpose: to defend the security interests and values of thetrans-Atlantic community.» --SPA www.spa.gov.sa/525718