The United States will launch strategic dialogue with Afghanistan in January, US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said on Tuesday.

At a meeting on Afghan reconstruction in Washington, Burns said he has accepted the invitation to visit the Afghan capital of Kabul in January to kick off the strategic dialogue with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Burns downplayed the surge of fighting and suicide bombings in southern Afghanistan, saying it does not represent "a strategic threat" to the Afghan government.

"While we've seen an increase in the number of attacks in the regions and some of the provincial cities and even in Kabul and Kandahar themselves over the past few months, we do not believe that these attacks pose a strategic threat to the central government," he said.
 
The clashes also were the result of NATO troops "taking the battle to the Taliban, along with the Afghan forces" in southern and eastern parts of the country, he added.

US President George W. Bush held talks with President Karzai in May last year and both agreed to establish a strategic partnership between the two countries.

The Karzai government has been a key ally of the United States in the war against terrorism.

(Xinhua News Agency November 1, 2006)