The speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai Sunday while on a short visit to Afghanistan.
Earlier in the day, Pelosi and a delegation of other Democratic Party lawmakers ate breakfast with American troops at the Bagram airbase.
The Bush administration said recently it will ask Congress for more than ten and a half billion dollars in new spending for Afghanistan, with most of the money designated to help build up Afghan security forces.
Last week, the U.S. military said it is extending the tour of 3000 American troops in Afghanistan by four months to help fight a resurgent Taleban.
Pelosi went to Afghanistan a day after she met with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad.
Their talks focused on the war on terrorism and the situation in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, spokesmen for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (I.S.A.F.) say Afghan and coalition troops fought with suspected Taleban insurgents in three separate engagements in the southern Uruzgan province.
One Afghan soldier and an unspecified number of militants were killed in the operations.
Afghan and coalition troops also arrested five people Sunday in the eastern city of Khost.
I.S.A.F. says they were arrested "in connection with a known terrorist sub-commander and weapons transporter."
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
