"Rolling back the Taliban is now necessary, even if not sufficient, to the ultimate defeat of Al-Qaeda," Gates told a Senate hearing a day after President Barack Obama unveiled plans to send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan.

Defending Obama's decision, Gates said it was vital to halt the momentum of the insurgents and that ceding Afghanistan to the militants would hand a powerful propaganda victory to Al-Qaeda with dire consequences.

"Failure in Afghanistan would mean a Taliban takeover of much, if not most, of the country and likely a renewed civil war," Gates said.

"Taliban-ruled areas could in short order become, once again, a sanctuary for Al-Qaeda as well as a staging area for resurgent militant groups on the offensive in Pakistan."

The first forces of the major US buildup will arrive in Afghanistan within two to three weeks, he said, as American troop levels were due to reach 100,000 by next summer.

But Gates, along with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and top US military officer Admiral Mike Mullen, faced tough questions about Obama's plans to begin a gradual withdrawal in July 2011, with Republicans charging it played into the hands of the enemy.

Senator John McCain endorsed the troop buildup but slammed the "arbitrary" date for a US exit, saying it sent a dangerous message to insurgents who he said would bide their time before American forces departed.

Gates said the Kabul government needed to understand that US forces would not stay indefinitely, and argued that setting a date for the start of a transition was needed to convey a sense of urgency for Afghan leaders.

He also suggested some flexibility to the withdrawal plan, saying there would be a review of the strategy within a year. And he described the mid-2011 target date as the start not of a withdrawal but of a "transition" in which Afghan forces would take the lead for security.

"Our current plan is that we will begin the transition in local areas in July of 2011. We will evaluate in December 2010 whether we believe we will be able to meet that objective," he said.

The defense secretary spoke of the surge lasting 18 to 24 months, while Obama had referred to an 18-month window, and Clinton said the United States was not "locked in" to the 2011 date.

The comments by Obama's deputies left open the possibility that the withdrawal date might be pushed back as US troops eventually moved to a supporting role for Afghan forces.

Gates told senators the US military would remain committed to training Afghan forces and that Kabul would not be abandoned.

"We're not just going to throw these guys into the swimming pool and walk away," said the former CIA director, who repeated his view that the United States had made a grave error in forsaking Afghanistan after the Cold War.

Obama's plan has drawn criticism from both the right and the left, with Republican lawmakers opposed to any withdrawal date and fellow Democrats skeptical of the mission and the 30-billion-dollar price tag of the troop surge.

Gates and Clinton said they were encouraged by the willingness of NATO allies to bolster their efforts in the Afghan war, which began with a US-led invasion in 2001 that toppled the Taliban regime.

The administration expected NATO allies to step up with an additional 5,000 to 7,000 troops, reinforcing the non-US contingent of about 42,000, Gates said.

With US Marines and soldiers focusing on the more volatile south and east, the Obama administration was counting on its NATO partners to concentrate their troops in the country's north and west, he said.

The top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, told troops in Kandahar that the arrival of reinforcements would pave the way for progress in the war.

"The south is going to be our main effort. I believe that by next summer the uplift of new forces will make a difference on the ground significantly," he said.

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