(BRUSSELS) - Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Wednesday that his country's commitment of 1,000 troops to Afghanistan was sufficient and called for "proper burden-sharing" from all other states involved.

Rudd, who held talks in Brussels with EU Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso, said he had no intention of pulling troops out of Afghanistan, declaring Australia is committed "for the long haul".

The Australian leader, who was to travel on to a NATO summit in Bucharest which began Wednesday, also said he would like to see Afghanistan's massive opium production eliminated and replaced by viable alternatives which would not fund terrorist groups.

"Our commitment in terms of the 1,000 troops is rock solid, as I have said to President Bush in Washington it's for the long haul," Rudd told reporters at a joint press conference with Barroso.

Saying that the Australian troop numbers were sufficient, he added: "We believe that what is appropriate for the future is an effective military and civil strategy for all those participating and proper burden-sharing across all participating states."

Rudd did not name any nations he thought might not be taking up their share of the burden, but stressed his commitment to speak for Australian troops during the Bucharest talks.

"We have Australian troops on the ground in Afghanistan. We have troops who are in harm's way and we owe them everything in our upcoming meetings in Bucharest," he told reporters.

In Bucharest Wednesday Bush warned that "innocent civilians will pay the price" if NATO fails to send more troops to Afghanistan to snuff out "terrorists" still lurking there.

The United States and NATO allies with troops confronting the Taliban in the south of Afghanistan are pressing other nations for bigger contributions to the 43,000-strong NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

Canada, which has suffered rising casualties, has made its continuing presence in southern Afghanistan conditional on others providing at least 1,000 troops as reinforcements along with helicopters and unmanned aircraft.

Australia has been contributing to the international efforts in Afghanistan despite not belonging to NATO.

Its troops in Afghanistan are mostly assisting a Dutch-led reconstruction operation in the southern province of Uruzgan, a former Taliban stronghold. Three have been killed in action.

In Washington on Friday Rudd expressed optimism over the NATO talks on troop contributions to Afghanistan.

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