"There is no doubt there are positive developments going on, but I would say it's very early yet," Gates told reporters on his plane before landing in the Afghan capital to review US-led efforts to beat back the Taliban.

He cautioned against triumphalism and said that there would be "some very hard fighting, very hard days ahead" as US, NATO and Afghan forces step up pressure on Taliban militants in the south under a last-ditch strategy designed to end the war.

Gates acknowledged "bits and pieces of good news" with the recent capture of senior Taliban leaders in neighbouring Pakistan and encouraging trends on the battlefield, but said it was probably too soon to say momentum had shifted to coalition forces.

"I think more needs to be done," he said, adding that a surge of US reinforcements was still in its initial stages.

About 6,000 of the 30,000 additional troops pledged by President Barack Obama in December have arrived in Afghanistan, Gates said, with the rest due to deploy by the end of August.

It was the Pentagon chief's first visit to Afghanistan since NATO and Afghan troops swept into the former Taliban stronghold of Marjah on February 13, in an assault seen as a pivotal test of Obama's bid to turn around the war, now in its ninth year.

Gates discussed the offensive -- billed as the biggest since the 2001 US-led invasion -- with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the commander of US and NATO troops, General Stanley McChrystal, as well as operations planned this year.

McChrystal said NATO and US troops could be ready take on the Taliban in their Kandahar strongholds this summer when enough reinforcements are on the ground.

"We are absolutely going to secure Kandahar," he told reporters, saying there would be significantly increased troop levels by "early summer," but stopped short of announcing a timeline for an offensive.

Unlike the Marjah assault that saw NATO helicopters insert large numbers of troops in a single day, the offensive in Kandahar would take a more gradual approach, he said.

"There won't be a D-Day that is climactic, it will be a rising tide of security as it comes," he said.

The number of coalition forces has been growing around Kandahar, with about 30,000 troops deployed in the area.

Although Kandahar was not under direct Taliban control, it was "under a menacing Taliban presence particularly in the districts around it," he added.

At a joint press conference later with Karzai, Gates called Marjah "only one of many battles still to come in a much longer campaign focused on protecting the people of Afghanistan."

He said there were "grounds for optimism" with Afghans joining the armed forces in large numbers and improved relations with Islamabad producing "tangible results", a reference to Pakistan's crackdown on Taliban extremists.

Karzai said he was going ahead with plans to hold a peace conference to encourage Taliban and other insurgent leaders to lay down their arms but he said there could be no reconciliation with members of the Al-Qaeda network.

Gates said he supported Karzai's efforts to promote reconciliation but said a peace deal likely would come only when insurgent commanders realise the odds "are no longer in their favour."

Before meeting Karzai, Gates said he would inquire about allegations that the new Afghan administrator for Marjah, Abdul Zahir, had been jailed in Germany for assaulting his step-son.

"The question is if the guy committed a crime and served the time, does that automatically rule him out? I mean I just don't know the answer to the question," he said.

Gates was due to visit US units on Tuesday to check on the progress of the buildup and efforts to bolster local Afghan government services.

There are approximately 121,000 US and NATO troops now in Afghanistan, but that number is expected to swell to 150,000 over the coming months.

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