Thomas de Maiziere's trip to Kabul is the first visit to Afghanistan by a German interior minister in six years. Germany has been tasked with training Afghan police forces since 2002, and de Maiziere is in Afghanistan to discuss the slow progress of the mission.

"It's no success story, but things are improving" said de Maiziere. "The new strategy will hopefully start working, but we cannot set the bar too high."

The German government has outlined a new Afghanistan strategy which foresees a new emphasis on training Afghan security forces and boosting the number of German instructors to do the job.

On Sunday, de Maiziere met with his Afghan counterpart Mohammad Hanif Atmar and General Stanley McChrystal, the American commander of NATO troops in Afghanistan. Representatives from the European Union police force EUPOL were also in attendance.

Redoubled efforts

Currently, there are 190 German police experts in Afghanistan helping to train Afghan police. This number is scheduled to increase to 260 in 2010. By 2014, 134,000 Afghan police are hoped to be in service. At the moment, there are just under 100,000.

Speaking through a military spokesman, de Maiziere said he was optimistic that "success can still be achieved in Afghanistan."

However, recruiting trainees for the Afghan police force has its share of difficulties. An estimated 1,400 Afghan police officers were killed last year alone during operations against the Taliban.

The Afghan interior ministry is also investigating how many of the Afghan police signed up on the force are actually serving. Drug addiction, illiteracy and corruption are common problems among the officers.

Surprise visit from Obama

As de Maiziere conducted his meetings in Kabul, US President Barack Obama was en route to the Afghan capital for a surprise meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The two leaders discussed making progress on good governance, rule of law, and anti-corruption efforts underway in Afghanistan.

Later, Obama visited the American airfield Bagram in Parvan province, where he addressed American troops stationed there.

The trip to Afghanistan is Obama's first as the Commander in Chief of the American military forces.

mz/dpa/AFP
Editor: Sonia Phalnikar