Speaking at a joint press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Rumsfeld said, "The US military is not leaving Afghanistan, although NATO-led troops would take command of the anti-terror war from the US-led coalition forces in southern Afghanistan late July."

"The US troops will go on to play an important role in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), some troops of which are moving toward the anti-Taliban frontier in southern Afghanistan, because the US is an important member of NATO," Rumsfeld said.

Rumsfeld vowed the US would intensify counter-terrorism tasks in Afghanistan until success was made, saying it would help train more Afghan troops and police and provide better equipments.

Rumsfeld said cooperation from Pakistan in Afghanistan's anti-terror war had been "helpful," but didn't completely reduce violence. "More work should be done, and more cooperation should be carried out."

Karzai said Afghanistan needed the US participation and assistance very much. The Afghan forces and police are still not strong enough to cope with security problems by themselves.

Earlier this year, local reports said that the US would withdraw 4,000 troops of the total 22,000 from Afghanistan as it intended to focus on the more violence occurred in Iraq.

Taliban-linked rising violence in southern and eastern Afghanistan has apparently postponed US plan to withdraw its troops from the country, according to local reports.

Afghanistan has suffered from a comeback of Taliban militants this year, during which more than 1,000 were killed. The deaths were mainly from the Taliban camp, while more than 50 foreign soldiers, mostly US troops, have lost their lives.

(Xinhua News Agency July 12, 2006)