NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said the operations in Afghanistan remain a key operational priority for the alliance and said the Afghan government will take full control of security of the country by 2014. He was speaking at a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is also attending the meeting in what will be his last meeting with the group before retiring at the end of the month. On Tuesday, on a farewell visit to U.S. troops in the Afghan capital Kabul, Gates said the coalition is on track to deliver a decisive blow against the Taliban.