The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, made the remarks to NBC television from Afghanistan, where he paid his second visit this month to the war-torn country at the heart of US foreign policy.

"There are limits on how many troops we can provide to make a difference," he told the television network.

"These 21,000 troops are absolutely vital. We don't have, we haven't had enough troops in Afghanistan to, once we are in an area to clear it, we haven't had enough troops to hold it. And these troops will allow us to do that."

The United States last month unveiled a sweeping new strategy designed to turn around the flagging war in Afghanistan, where a Taliban insurgency last year reached its deadliest proportions since the 2001 US-led invasion.

The plan puts Pakistan at the heart of the fight against Al-Qaeda, but dispatches thousands of extra troops to Afghanistan and boosts civilian efforts to build the impoverished country, notably in the key agriculture sector.

US President Barack Obama is expected to decide later in the year whether to approve the deployment of a further 10,000 troops to Afghanistan.

When asked by NBC to respond to American people who want to know how much longer "the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan" will take Mullen replied: "These next two years, I think, will tell that tale".

"There will be a significant engagement for a period of time. It's not -- we're not going to turn it around and succeed in the next 24 months," he said.

The commander lumped together the fight against the Taliban, the resurgent hardline Islamist movement fighting against the Western-backed Afghan government and foreign troops, and Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda terror network.

"Goal one is to get Al-Qaeda and its leadership -- defeat them. The Taliban and Al-Qaeda have in ways merged. So what was a few years ago sort of a separate fight is now merging," he said.

"The threat is very real. I see intelligence routinely that indicates that Al-Qaeda is plotting against the United States, against Western interests."

Mullen arrived in Afghanistan early Wednesday and travelled to the eastern province of Wardak to meet newly deployed US forces and Afghan police, said a spokeswoman for the US-led coalition, Elizabeth Mathais.

"They went down to Jalrez district (Wardak province) and met with governor (Haleem) Fadayee and some of the Afghan public protection force," she told AFP.

Mullen travelled to Pakistan later Wednesday, where he was expected to meet government officials, although the US embassy was unable to confirm his precise agenda.

The commander has said that he expects Taliban activity to rise during 2009 in Afghanistan as the United States prepares to send in extra troops in the coming months to counter the bloody insurgency.

The new reinforcements include 17,000 combat forces and 4,000 mentors who will train new Afghan security force recruits. They will join 70,000 foreign troops already in Afghanistan, including about 38,000 US troops.

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