Western allies have been too hesitant in supplying the NATO mission in Libya with the necessary military contributions, the head of the military alliance said on Monday.
In a speech delivered in Varna, Bulgaria, and posted on the NATO website, Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the "Libya operation was a great success" in terms of NATO managing to act at an early stage of a conflict, DPA reported.
"Where we were less successful, however, was in backing up that political decision with the necessary military contributions," he said.
"In the case of Libya, as well as in Afghanistan, we have sometimes struggled to generate the right forces and the right capabilities."
Urging NATO member states "to demonstrate alliance solidarity not just in words, but also in deeds," Rasmussen said NATO members needed to "take the political decision to deploy the right forces and capabilities. And this includes deploying them without caveats."
In Libya, some NATO countries are contributing to the enforcement of the no-fly zone and the policing of the naval arms embargo, but are holding back from taking part in air raids.
Rasmussen said that "the constraints that caveats impose upon (NATO commanders) severely reduce the flexibility they need and limit their options."