U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said NATO was obsolete because it had not defended against terror attacks, but that the military alliance was still very important to him, The Times of London reported. NATO yesterday reiterated its full confidence in the US security commitment to Europe, despite Trump sparking fresh uproar by saying the alliance was obsolete."I took such heat, when I said NATO was obsolete," Trump told the newspaper in an interview. "It's obsolete because it wasn't taking care of terror. I took a lot of heat for two days. And then they started saying Trump is right."In the interview, Trump repeated his criticism of those NATO members who he said were not paying their fair share, noting only five NATO members were spending the agreed target of 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense."A lot of these countries aren't paying what they're supposed to be paying, which I think is very unfair to the United States," Trump said. "With that being said, NATO is very important to me. There is five countries that are paying what they're supposed to. Five. It's not much."Trump also cast doubt on the European Union's future after Britain's departure and said he was ready to ease sanctions against Russia over its role in the Ukraine crisis, adding to concerns over his intentions just days before his inauguration.In a statement, NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg was looking forward to working with Trump and his team. "He is absolutely confident that the incoming US administration will remain committed to NATO," Lungescu said.She said the two men had already discussed defense and increased spending, a key issue for many years in Washington which has pushed the allies to share more of the burden.On the campaign trail, Trump had even suggested Washington might not help an ally under threat if it had not paid its dues. "A strong NATO is good for the United States, just as it is for Europe," Lungescu said.Stung by Russia's Ukraine intervention and its annexation of Crimea, the NATO allies embarked on the biggest military build-up since the end of the Cold War.Trump's position appears to undercut that hard-won commitment while he has also wrong-footed the European Union, which has just extended economic sanctions against Russia.Those sanctions were agreed in 2014 only reluctantly, with some EU member states regretting the economic damage they did to both sides.NATO had earlier Monday referred journalists to remarks made by Stoltenberg on Dec. 6 at an alliance foreign ministers meeting when asked repeatedly about Trump's intentions. On that occasion, Stoltenberg recalled that the only time NATO's article 5 collective defense provision had been invoked was after the 9/11 terror attacks on the United States.