"We realize that Afghanistan and Regional Command East are at a critical moment," Major General Curtis Scaparrotti said, as the United States scrambles to boost Afghan Security Forces (ASF) capability and local government competence ahead of a planned foreign troop pullout beginning in July 2011.

"In terms of strength within RC East, I don't believe that they're any stronger now than they were a year ago," the commander said of the Taliban, speaking to reporters in the US capital via live video-link from Afghanistan.

"I would say it is degraded," he said of the militant group's capacity in the east, but noted that attacks with improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, are on the rise.

"They have conducted less direct fire attacks from the winter into this spring, and they're using more IEDs, suicide vests and potentially a car bomb," he said.

As an example he cited last month's suicide attack against the US-operated Bagram air base outside Kabul, and a suicide car bombing by the Taliban the previous day which killed at least 18 people, including six NATO troops -- five US and one Canadian.

The Bagram attack "was really not one that I think could have achieved success in terms of penetrating the base itself," Scaparrotti said.

Yet it sparked hours of battles, left an American contractor and 10 militants dead, and highlighted the increasing sophistication and relentless pace of the conflict in which the Taliban are waging an insurgency to overthrow the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.

While the insurgents has gained strength in recent years, spreading their influence beyond their traditional stronghold in the country's south, Scaparrotti insists progress has been made in boosting security in the rugged east, where Afghan and NATO forces this week retook a remote district near the Pakistan border that had been overrun by militants.

As Afghan leaders gather this week in Kabul for Karzai's peace jirga to address reconciliation with insurgents, Scaparrotti pointed to some Islamist extremists abandoning the fight and returning to their communities throughout the east's 14 provinces.

Scaparrotti said he has seen "increased interest within the provinces, virtually all of them, to have fighters that have made contact and want to come back to their community... and we've had examples of where small unit commanders have brought eight or 10 fighters back in."

Under such deals, usually arranged by local authorities or sub-governors, the ex-insurgents are received by their tribe, assure they won't return to the fight, "and pledge allegiance to the (Afghan) government," Scaparrotti said.

While large swathes of the region are calm, Afghanistan's east remains volatile. It shares a long border with Pakistan, from where a significant number of foreign fighters cross into Afghanistan.

The east is receiving about 4,000 mainly combat troops from the 30,000 approved by US President Barack Obama as part of a surge of extra forces into Afghanistan this year, according to the general.

"I think those forces give us the force structure that we needed to have the success in security, governance and development that we need to have to begin to turn it over to the Afghans," he said.

Scaparrotti warned though that serious problems persisted, notably corruption among local government and security officials, but he insisted some progress has been made, citing the Afghan government's arrest of a police chief and the sacking of several deputy-governors.

He also praised the ASF for demonstrating increased ability to protect Afghans, a development he attributed to the extended joint operations in which international security forces "live, train and fight" with their Afghan counterparts.

Dawn Liberi, Scaparrotti's civilian counterpart in the east, said the US civilian presence has surged in the region, from under 25 experts last year to 170 today.

"By the end of the year we are projected to have about 285 civilian experts" on the ground aimed at training some 12,000 Afghans, Liberi said on the same video-link.

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