Defence Minister John Faulkner will encourage the Dutch to remain with Australian forces in Afghanistan during high-level talks this week, and he has played down speculation the Australian Defence Force's contribution could be wound back.
Senator Faulkner and Chief of Defence Force Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston left for Bratislava, Slovakia, last night for a meeting of NATO defence ministers to discuss the situation in Afghanistan.
The talks will include discussions about who will take over as the lead nation in Oruzgan province in Afghanistan's south, where most of Australia's troops are based when the Netherlands plans to withdraw its troops next August. Senator Faulkner said this was a matter for NATO which Australia is not a member of but he would discuss it with his counterparts.
''I think that the Dutch have been magnificent partners for us ... Of course Australia will be very much encouraging the Dutch to maintain a role in Oruzgan,'' he said.
It comes as incumbent Afghan President Hamid Karzai was forced to agree to a second round of voting after the United Nations-backed Electoral Complaints Commission rejected fraudulent ballots from 210 polling stations.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Australia would help ensure the poll ran smoothly.
''We are already prepared to assist the Afghan election authorities with the second round election, including through the 120 combat troops on the ground in Oruzgan province who provided security for the first round of voting,'' he said.
Senator Faulkner also sought to play down suggestions he had indicated he wanted to withdraw Australian troops from the country earlier than planned. He said yesterday morning he had asked the military for recommendations about completing its mission of training the Afghan army ''in the shortest time frame possible''.
He told an estimates hearing later yesterday his comments had not gone to ''whittling away'' the 1550 Australian soldiers in Afghanistan, but giving the ''absolute assurance that we are focused on that critical objective we have set ourselves''.
The military also responded to concerns the navy's Collins class submarines are facing serious engine problems.
Chief of Navy Vice-Admiral Russ Crane said one boat had suffered a ''catastrophic failure during normal operations'' in two of its engines recently and was being repaired. Defence Materiel Organisation chief executive officer Stephen Gumley said initial reports suggested human error was to blame.
The other two operational boats were also undergoing maintenance, but Defence did not expect to have to replace the engines in all the submarines.
Air Chief Marshal Houston also revealed the military was improving its recruitment and retention, despite being forced to cancel a contract with its recruitment provider.
Defence met 89per cent of its recruitment target, compared with 67per cent a year ago.
''As at September 1, the ADF 12-month rolling separation rate of 8.4per cent is nearly 2per cent lower than 12 months ago,'' he said.