Rice, Miliband visit troops in Kandahar

(CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband visited Afghanistan on an unannounced trip Thursday to meet with troops, military leaders, and top government officials.

The two -- who met in London a day earlier -- visited Kandahar, where Rice thanked troops participating in the NATO-led mission there.

"You're contributing not only to the security and the future of the Afghan people, but you are contributing to the security and future of your own countries, your own people, and indeed, the security and future of the world," she told the troops.

Rice told reporters en route to Afghanistan that she wanted to visit Kandahar in addition to the capital, Kabul, because it is one of the more "active" areas of the country for international efforts.

She told the Kandahar troops that the mission is about turning Afghanistan into a modern state and stopping terrorism emanating from the country.

"That's the core of the modern fight, and it's a tough fight and a long fight," Rice said.

A senior State Department official told reporters that Kandahar is the Taliban's headquarters and "the toughest part of Afghanistan." By visiting Kandahar, the official said, the United States and Britain wanted to show the international community that they are "standing up and doing the tough job."

Rice and Miliband held a news conference later in Kabul with President Hamid Karzai.

"What we've been doing in the counter-insurgency struggle in Afghanistan is having good effect, but the work is not complete," she said.

Rice talked about the challenges of fostering security, providing essential services, and improving the Afghan government from the national to the local level.

"That's hard work," she said, for a war-wracked country that over the years had gone through a stretch "of being a failed state."

The visit by Rice and Miliband coincided with the start of a two-day conference of NATO defense ministers in Vilnius, Lithuania, where U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates planned to press allies for a greater contribution in Afghanistan.

Gates has recently complained that countries like the United States, Britain, and Canada are doing the bulk of the fighting while others -- specifically Germany, France, Italy and Turkey -- aren't doing enough.

Watch what he told Capitol Hill »

The defense secretary told the Senate on Wednesday he feared the reluctance of some NATO allies to contribute troops and resources would split NATO in two.

Speaking to reporters during a news conference in Lithuania, Gates said he doesn't believe the NATO mission would be in trouble if more countries aren't willing to provide troops for combat.

Gates said such a development would be disappointing, but "I don't think that there's a crisis, that there's a risk of failure."

"My view is that it represents potentially the opportunity to make further progress faster in Afghanistan if we had more forces there."

Canada, a major player in combat efforts in the south, has talked about leaving the mission if 1,000 troops aren't added from other countries to its southern Afghan region. Canada has 2,500 troops in Afghanistan.

Gates said that "would be a setback." But indicated that Canada's stance has had a positive effect because it has compelled the alliance to face up to the burden-sharing issue.

He said there are more creative ways to resolve burden-sharing problems, such as countries providing or paying for helicopters.

In Afghanistan, Gates said, President Karzai and others have been talking about "trying to identify Taliban who are potentially reconcilable, sort of along the lines of what happened in Anbar province in Iraq. And I think there have been some very modest arrangements made with Taliban but not very large numbers of people involved."

Anbar province, in western Iraq, is where the anti-al Qaeda in Iraq grass-roots "awakening" groups emerged over the last year.

In Afghanistan, NATO said senior military commanders briefed Rice and Miliband about their operations in the south, a restive region of six provinces including Kandahar and Helmand. Gates has pressed NATO countries to contribute troops specifically to the south.

"There has been progress in terms of security, governance, and development in the region of the last few years," said Major-General Marc Lessard, NATO's commander in the southern region. "Our coalition mission is complex and at times challenging, but we are resolved to seeing the task through."

Miliband alluded to Gates's request for more help as he thanked the troops and promised to give them better support.

"As the debate hots up in our countries about what you are doing here and the difference you are making, we will be defending you heart and soul and defending the role you are playing in helping make a difference in a society that desperately needs the sort of support that we can give," he said. E-mail to a friend