(KABUL) - Europe is committed for the long haul in Afghanistan to help beat extremism and rebuild the country after war, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said in Kabul Monday.

Solana jetted into the capital for a day-long trip that he said in remarks published in a Kabul daily Monday came at an important time of "renewed commitment by the international community" to struggling Afghanistan.

He met President Hamid Karzai and other government officials and was due to hold talks with the head of a NATO-military force with 47,000 soldiers here and to tour an EU police training mission in the capital.

The people and "all the governments of the European Union will continue to be working with the government, working with the people of Afghanistan for the long haul, for the long term," the diplomat said after meeting Karzai.

Europe is the second largest contributor after the United States to military and development efforts in Afghanistan since the 2001 fall of the extremist Taliban regime.

The financial cost and loss of soldiers killed fighting Taliban extremists has raised doubts in some allied nations about the mammoth mission, which has been criticised as wasteful and disjointed.

Karzai praised the European Union as "among the best supporters of Afghanistan."

Solana added that his talks with Karzai had touched on difficulties holding back progress in Afghanistan, importantly security. The extremist insurgency has in particularly grown in the past two years.

In written comments for the Daily Outlook Afghanistan newspaper, he said it was "important that Afghan solutions are found to Afghan problems."

And success would involve more than a military effort to eliminate extremists, whose ranks are said to be reinforced, trained and equipped by militant camps in neighbouring Pakistan.

"The approach must be global and joined up, encompassing the rule of law, development, reconstruction, economic growth, rural development and education," Solana said.

"It is very important that the efforts should be led by Afghans," he said, reflecting growing demands by Karzai and his government for more ownership of the work here.

The international community's renewed commitment to the country, seven difficult years after the fall of the Taliban, was made clear at a NATO summit this month and in the appointment of a new UN envoy to the country, he said.

Solana added that his trip was important in view of a June conference of donor nations and agencies.

"This is the moment to reflect on what we, the international community, can do, working in conjunction with our Afghan partners, to enhance our efforts," he said.

The diplomat is due to travel Tuesday to Pakistan, which is also facing a wave of extremist violence.

He would be one of the most senior European Union officials to meet Pakistan's new leaders following elections on February 18, his spokeswoman Cristina Gallach said in Brussels last week.

His message to them would be that "the world looks at you, the EU looks at you," she said.

"We want to have solid relations with this new government, at the moment when it is necessary to consolidate the democratic process and the line of reform," she said.

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