BBC News with Kathy Clugston

An American general says President Obama's plan to start withdrawing troops from Afghanistan next July is encouraging Taliban insurgents. The head of the US Marine Corp General James Conway said that after that date the insurgents would find US forces still attacking them.

"If you accept that marines will be there after 2011, what's the enemy going to say then? What's he going to say to his foot troops when you've got the leadership outside the country, trying to direct operations within because it's too dangerous for them to be there? And the foot troops have been believing what he's saying that they're all going to leave in the summer of next year. And come the fall, we're still there hammering them like we have been. I think it could be very good for us in that context in terms of the enemy psyche."