U.S. lawmakers told NATO's military commander that they want other NATO members to take on more of the alliance's financial burden, the Defense News reported Thursday.

U.S. Marine Corps Gen. James Jones, the alliance's top officer and the commander of U.S. forces in Europe, was told by members of House and Senate defense committees during a series of hearings this week that other NATO members should raise their defense budgets, according to the report.

U.S. lawmakers expressed such wishes after they were told by Jones that only eight of 26 NATO members are fulfilling a 2002 pledge to dedicate at least 2 percent of GDP to defense.

Duncan Hunter, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, on Wednesday compared the situation to a picnic in which the United States provides the T-bone steaks while some other countries bring the plastic forks "and some just show up with a smile."

Jones acknowledged the opposition within NATO members to fund the organization's expanding operation outside Europe, namely its growing security role in Afghanistan and its aid to African peacekeepers in Sudan.

The general said NATO countries are considering the purchase of a handful of C-17 transport planes, which will give the alliance its first strategic airlift capability.

At present, the United States and the United Kingdom are the only NATO members that have such a capability, forcing the alliance to hire charter aircraft for much of its transportation.

Source: Xinhua