Taliban still a viable resistance force: US

The assessment follows a stretch in which US troops in Afghanistan have been killed at a higher rate than those in Iraq, where there are about eight times as many American soldiers and where the situation is widely perceived as more dangerous.

Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, plans to meet President Bush at the White House today. It will be his first Washington visit since his inauguration in December as Afghanistan's first democratically elected president.

Combat in Afghanistan has intensified in recent weeks, as expected, after a winter lull. US commanders, however, say they think their plan for improving security including the expansion of Afghan army, border patrol and police forces is on track.

On Sunday fighting between insurgents and US-led coalition and Afghan forces in the country's troubled east left 12 rebels dead and one US soldier slightly wounded, the US military said.

The clash occurred Saturday in Paktika province, which borders Pakistan, said US military spokesman Lt. Col. Jerry O'Hara.

"It was clearly the insurgents who fired upon us first," he said.

O'Hara said the 12 were killed by a combination of direct fire from troops on the ground and coalition attack aircraft.

Brig. Gen. Greg Champion, a deputy commander of Combined Joint Task Force 76, said in a telephone interview Friday from his headquarters at Bagram airfield that the recent increase in insurgent violence was due mainly to a more aggressive approach by American and Afghan forces.

"We have not taken a posture of waiting" for the Taliban to begin their usual spring offensive, he said. Instead, US and Afghan forces have been "going on our own offensive."

Insurgent attacks continue, however.

Suspected Taliban militants gunned down six Afghan employees of a US-funded anti-drug project in southern Afghanistan on Thursday. Also, an Italian aid worker was kidnapped this past week in Kabul, the capital, adding to the fears of relief groups that are vital to the reconstruction effort.

The US has about 16,700 troops in Afghanistan, with 22 allied nations contributing an additional 1,600. Nato operates a security force of about 8,000 international troops.

As a proportion of their total numbers, US troops in Afghanistan recently have been dying at a slightly higher rate than in Iraq, where there are about 135,000 troops.

Since early March, 27 American military personnel have died in Afghanistan, according to Pentagon figures, or about 1.6 per 1,000; the latest death came from a bombing Saturday, with a purported Taliban spokesman claiming responsibility.

During the same time period in Iraq, at least 124 have died, a rate of about 0.9 per 1,000.

Karzai has said he will press Bush for a "strategic partnership" with the US encompassing long-term political, economic and military assistance.