BRATISLAVA, Slovakia: The host of a meeting of NATO defense ministers is harshly criticizing the US over its 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Slovak Premier Robert Fico used a news conference with NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen yesterday to say: "We opposed the mission in Iraq because the use of military force was only motivated by oil."

The often outspoken Fico says that by contrast the Afghanistan war and its goal of confronting terrorism were sanctioned by the United Nations. He says Slovakia will beef up its 250-member engineering unit based in Afghanistan's Kandahar and Uruzgan provinces.