The top Republican on the US Senate Armed Services Committee said Nato and Afghan troops would prevail in the war if they could succeed in securing and bolstering governance in the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.

General David Petraeus, the new commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, called for unity today in the civilian and military effort to turn back the Taliban and stabilise the troubled country.

General David Petraeus landed in the Afghan capital today to take command of US and international forces fighting the nearly nine-year-old war, Nato said.

The US’s Afghanistan war commander General Stanley McChrystal has been called to the White House after President Barack Obama rebuked him for “poor judgement” and considered whether to fire him.

Afghanistan’s president Hamid Karzai is seeking US backing for faster negotiations with Taliban leaders who were in power during the September 11 attacks.

US President Barack Obama today told Afghan leaders to do more to rein in rampant corruption and improve their government as he made an unannounced visit to the capital for a firsthand look at the eight-year-old war he inherited and dramatically escalated.

US President Barack Obama made a surprise visit to Afghanistan today for a first-hand look at the eight-year-old war he inherited and has dramatically escalated.

The so-called US "civilian surge" in Afghanistan is mired in bureaucracy and may not succeed in time to help the war effort, a State Department report said.

The US general running the war in Afghanistan told Congress he did not get as many troops as he wanted and must work to a schedule not of his choosing, but insisted Barack Obama’s surge-and-exit strategy was the best way to win.

BARACK OBAMA has begun one of the toughest sales jobs of his presidency, launching the much-awaited roll-out of his Afghan war strategy by informing top military and civilian advisers in Washington and Kabul and telephoning key allies around the globe.

PRESIDENT Barack Obama rejected the Afghanistan war options before him and asked for revisions, his defence secretary has said, after the US ambassador in Kabul argued that a significant US troop increase would only prop up a weak, corruption-tainted government.

The US envoy in Afghanistan has objected strongly to emerging plans to send tens of thousands of additional forces to the country, a senior US official said last night.

Nato will soon assume direct control over most military operations in Afghanistan, a move that will place 12,000 more US troops under its authority, a spokesman for the alliance has said.

AMERICAN soldiers in Kabul who witnessed the attack on the Pentagon paid tribute yesterday to victims of the 9/11 attacks.

Nato troops assumed command today of military operations in volatile southern Afghanistan from the US-led coalition in the latest bid to crush resurgent Taliban forces behind a deadly spike in bloodshed.

US-LED coalition aircraft killed up to 80 suspected Taliban militants in a night airstrike on a rebel stronghold in southern Afghanistan, the coalition said yesterday.

US-led coalition aircraft killed up to 80 suspected Taliban militants in a night airstrike on a rebel stronghold in southern Afghanistan, the coalition said today. The local governor said 16 civilians also died.

THE World Food Programme yesterday warned it may be forced to scale back vital aid flights for victims of the South Asia quake within days if it does not receive more donations.

The shadow of al-Qaida fell across Afghanistan after Osama bin Laden’s top deputy called the country’s landmark elections a farce, and the US military commander here warned of more Taliban rebel attacks.

Fierce battles between US and government forces and Taliban-led militants have left about 64 rebels dead, the US military said today, the bloodiest fighting in Afghanistan in nine months.