Rice made her case during a press conference in Kabul with President Hamid Karzai and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband who accompanied her on a surprise visit here amid growing fears for Afghanistan's future.

"You have determined enemies. We know that. The Taliban and Al-Qaeda continue to make life difficult" for ordinary Afghans, the top US diplomat told Karzai in the highly fortified and snow-covered presidential palace.

She said the NATO-led force and Afghan security forces had to focus much more on fighting new Taliban tactics such as suicide bombings and kidnappings after large-scale offensives mounted by the militants had failed.

"They've tried to adopt other tactics, like going after innocent people. We'll have to adapt too. The Afghan government, the Afghan forces will have to adapt," Rice said.

"But to say it's not working, I think, I would say it's not complete, but the strategy is one, I believe, that is having a good effect," she said.

Miliband said the response of key allies to the new Taliban tactics amounted to a "new phase" in the six-year war.

Rice and Karzai hailed the building of road networks since US-led forces toppled the Taliban and its Al-Qaeda allies at the end of 2001 -- something the US diplomat said helped boost the economy as well as find the militants.

They also cited improvements in health and education, other signs Rice said showed the country had made a "remarkable difference for the better" over the many decades it had spent as a failed state.

Rice and Miliband were also here as part of a joint bid to urge NATO allies to share the burden in Afghanistan by sending more combat troops, helicopters and other military equipment to defeat a resurgent Taliban in its southern strongholds.

Germany rebuffed US appeals last week to send such troops in a public tiff that fuelled fears voiced in Washington and London that the international community may fragment and abandon Afghanistan.

Canada has meanwhile threatened not to extend its mission beyond next year unless it gets more support.

United States Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday that NATO allies who could not to send troops to south Afghanistan might be able to make other contributions, notably equipment.

"If somebody can't send combat soldiers in certain areas because of the politics at home then perhaps they could pay for helicopters or provide helicopters," said Gates, in what appeared to be a reference to Germany.

"We just we need to be more creative," he added. He was speaking to journalists in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, where 26 NATO state defence ministers are meeting ahead of a NATO summit in early April.

The US official, who has been pushing for allies to up their troop commitments in Afghanistan, particularly its restive south, conceded "it would be a disappointment" if few or none made offers.

Domestic support among some NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) nations for the mission has plummeted as more troops are killed and as the violence has escalated along with the country's opium production.

Karzai said, however, he was confident that NATO would remain united in its commitment to helping Afghanistan.

"Different views among donor countries to Afghanistan and on how to provide assistance to Afghanistan and military and financial issues is pretty natural," he said at the media briefing.

"But these different views will not make them separate or lessen their assistance to Afghanistan."

While en route to Afghanistan with Miliband, Rice was also confident NATO would eventually pass "the test" of finding adequate troops to do the job.

Rice and Miliband met around 200 soldiers at a major NATO airbase in southern Kandahar province, the birthplace of the Taliban movement, before their talks with Karzai.

"As the debate hots up in our countries about what you're doing and the difference you're making, we'll be defending you heart and soul," Miliband told troops at Kandahar Air Field.

US forces led the invasion of Afghanistan that removed the hardline Taliban from government weeks after the September 11, 2001, attacks by the Al-Qaeda network, which then had bases in the country.

Despite the efforts of nearly 60,000 international troops in ISAF and the separate US-led coalition working alongside Afghan forces, the Taliban's insurgency was its most deadly last year, with more than 6,000 people killed, including nearly 220 international soldiers.

ISAF commanders have been calling for around 7,500 extra troops to fight the Taliban threat.

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