State Department spokesman Ian Kelly, who denied reports that the coordinator would circumvent Karzai, said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would discuss the idea with allies in Brussels later in the week.

"It's a way for us to better support the efforts of Afghanistan to provide for its own security and ... provide a better economic future for the Afghan people," Kelly told reporters.

"This is not in any way an attempt to ... undercut or bypass ...the Afghan government," he added.

The British newspaper The Guardian reported the plan late Monday on its website, but described it as a US bid to circumvent Karzai, who is under fire for failing to root out the alleged corruption hobbling his government.

Kelly said Clinton looks forward to discussing the coordinator's role when she meets in Brussels on Friday with fellow foreign ministers from NATO and other countries involved in the mission to stabilize Afghanistan.

"I am not sure if this will be a decision meeting in Brussels, but this idea will certainly be discussed," Kelly said.

Kelly said said the role of a civilian coordinator is not new and had been raised at NATO in the last several years. The idea is to have a civilian counterpart to the commander of the NATO force in Afghanistan.

The State Department spokesman said he was not sure who first floated the idea of a coordinator. The Guardian said Richard Holbrooke, the special US representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, was behind it.

The London-based newspaper also said Holbrooke had tried in vain to persuade the Europeans to back a coordinator's role during a recent tour.

A State Department official told reporters on the condition of anonymity that "it's fair to say there's momentum building behind" the idea of a coordinator.

"We support the idea. I don't know if I would necessarily say we are the driving force behind it. I think (British) Prime Minister (Gordon) Brown has been a big advocate of it," the official said.

Women's groups want long-term US presence in Afghanistan
Washington (AFP) Dec 1, 2009 - Women's rights activists on Tuesday backed a US troop surge in Afghanistan but warned that hard-fought gains in women's rights will vanish without a long-term commitment to develop the country.

"If the US left, women would be back in their burkas," said Esther Hyneman, a member of Women for Afghan Women (WAW), a rights group advocating for Afghan women in the United States and Afghanistan.

Her comments came just hours before President Barack Obama's long-awaited announcement on Afghanistan, during which he was set to announce an accelerated deployment of 30,000 troops within six months to the war-torn country and a US drawdown to begin by July 2011.

While a troop surge would help to bring much-needed security to Afghanistan, "the platform on which everything else can be built," the United States must meet its pledge to Afghan women, said Afghan-born Masuda Sultan, who serves on WAW's board.

"When the fall of the Taliban happened, we said, 'Go to school, take jobs.' Afghan women risked their lives, they did it," said Sultan, who has moved back to Afghanistan and works as an advisor to the Finance Ministry in addition to her advocacy work for WAW.

"We have a moral obligation to continue to follow through for Afghan women who have put themselves at risk over the last eight years," she told reporters.

Afghan women have made modest rights advances since the US-led invasion of 2001 toppled the Taliban, but those gains will be wiped out "if the US and other international forces do not maintain a presence in Afghanistan and a level of security," said WAW's Sunita Viswanath.

"America must make a long-term commitment to Afghanistan. Countries cannot recover overnight from 30 years of war, chaos, destruction, subjugation."

Obama was set to deliver his prime-time, televised address on Afghanistan to a group of cadets in the symbolic venue of the US Military Academy at West Point, New York, at 8:00 pm (0100 GMT).

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