Washington:
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has complimented Afghan President Hamid Karzai for taking the high road after being criticised in the deluge of sensitive State Department documents released by WikiLeaks.
Gates says he is grateful for Karzai's muted response and similar reactions from other world leaders.
While Gates has said the leak of more than a quarter million documents was embarrassing, he has insisted that they will not have a lasting effect on US diplomacy.
"I would say that America's best partners and friends, and I include among them President Karzai, have responded to this, in my view, in an extraordinarily statesmanlike way," he said at the news conference he shared with Karzai on Wednesday.
An American diplomatic memo divulged by WikiLeaks quotes the US ambassador to Kabul describing Karzai as a "paranoid and weak individual."
Meanwhile the transition of security responsibilities from US to Afghan troops will begin in the next several months, senior US military commanders said Wednesday, and will probably include districts in southern Afghanistan - a restive region that once spawned the birth of the Taliban.
The transition is a cornerstone of the Obama administration's commitment to begin withdrawing US forces by June 2011, but it will hinge on US and Afghan forces' ability to keep the Taliban at bay next spring, when insurgents traditionally revive their attacks.
"We believe that the security situation will be improved to the extent that in 2014 the Afghan security forces will be able to have the lead as they do here in Kabul, across the entire country," Gates said Wednesday.
Lt General David Rodriguez, commander of the International Security Assistance Force's joint command, told reporters that officials are looking at several places to begin the transition, but they probably won't make any final decisions for another three months.
One of the prime candidates, however, is Nawa in Helmand Province, where US Major General Richard Mills said his forces are already moving to the outskirts of the city.
For his part though Karzai said on Wednesday the country still had a long way to go before it can be considered a "fundamentally strong country with an army that can defend itself."
"We would require much more. Proper air power, proper mobility of our forces and equipment that will be good enough to sustain our country as far as security is concerned," he said.
Gates says he is grateful for Karzai's muted response and similar reactions from other world leaders.
While Gates has said the leak of more than a quarter million documents was embarrassing, he has insisted that they will not have a lasting effect on US diplomacy.
"I would say that America's best partners and friends, and I include among them President Karzai, have responded to this, in my view, in an extraordinarily statesmanlike way," he said at the news conference he shared with Karzai on Wednesday.
An American diplomatic memo divulged by WikiLeaks quotes the US ambassador to Kabul describing Karzai as a "paranoid and weak individual."
Meanwhile the transition of security responsibilities from US to Afghan troops will begin in the next several months, senior US military commanders said Wednesday, and will probably include districts in southern Afghanistan - a restive region that once spawned the birth of the Taliban.
The transition is a cornerstone of the Obama administration's commitment to begin withdrawing US forces by June 2011, but it will hinge on US and Afghan forces' ability to keep the Taliban at bay next spring, when insurgents traditionally revive their attacks.
"We believe that the security situation will be improved to the extent that in 2014 the Afghan security forces will be able to have the lead as they do here in Kabul, across the entire country," Gates said Wednesday.
Lt General David Rodriguez, commander of the International Security Assistance Force's joint command, told reporters that officials are looking at several places to begin the transition, but they probably won't make any final decisions for another three months.
One of the prime candidates, however, is Nawa in Helmand Province, where US Major General Richard Mills said his forces are already moving to the outskirts of the city.
For his part though Karzai said on Wednesday the country still had a long way to go before it can be considered a "fundamentally strong country with an army that can defend itself."
"We would require much more. Proper air power, proper mobility of our forces and equipment that will be good enough to sustain our country as far as security is concerned," he said.
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