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WASHINGTON : US President George Bush will host Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai for two days at the Camp David presidential retreat starting on Sunday.
The US wants to focus more on Afghanistan's future and economic development but experts in Washington say the two men need to discuss the resurgence of the Taliban and Islamic militants in Afghanistan and in neighbouring Pakistan.
The White House says it has complex issues to discuss with President Karzai, and President Bush wants to support his government.
Richard Boucher, US Assistant Secretary of State, says: "This is one of those occasions where they can go and talk about how things are going and what we have to do together, and a chance for us, I think, to make clear once again that US support for Afghanistan is strong."
The US insists that things are going well between Kabul and Washington, but relations with Afghanistan's neighbours are a different matter.
Last year, Mr Bush hosted an emergency summit between Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf and President Karzai to improve relations between the two governments.
Experts say, the focus needs to be the Pakistan-Afghan relationship.
Teresita Schaffer, Center for Strategic and International Studies, says: "There is an urgent need that I think everybody realises for better coordination among Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States. I would say there's an urgent need for at least those three to agree on the broad outlines of a political strategy and to do in ways that they can really get their backs into pursuing."
The problem that Afghanistan and Pakistan share is the Taliban and the resurgence of Islamic militancy.
Osama bin Laden, Ayman al Zawahiri and the rest of al- Qaeda had reportedly found sanctuary along the two countries' mountainous border among people who live there.
The US says a combination of strategies is helping to change the situation.
Mr Boucher says: "I think over the general trend, we've seen a rise in cooperation, although there are a lot more areas where we can encourage that. We work with Afghanistan on the problems inside Afghanistan and we'll work with Pakistan on the problems inside Pakistan.
"And we have major programmes with Pakistan to bring economic development to the border areas, major programmes to help them improve and transform the Frontier Corps to provide better security in that region and other programmes to cooperate with the Government of Pakistan as it goes about its task of imposing government order and dealing with the extremists who are still holed up in those areas. "
For a long time, the Pakistani government saw militant Islamic groups as critical to the nation's survival.
Following a series of crises over the past several months, culminating with the confrontation at the Red Mosque in Islamabad, experts now say, just as Mr Karzai refuses to tolerate the Taliban in Afghanistan, Pakistani President Musharraf can no longer do the same on his side of the border.
Ms Schaffer says: "I think this is a very serious problem for Musharraf not because they (Taliban) have a huge following...but because of their continued willingness to blow themselves and other people up. I think this is something that he's going to have difficulty dealing with. Traditional policy has been to get them under control, but not out of business. I don't think that fine balance is sustainable anymore, but putting them out of business is something that's never been done before."
The United States insists the Taliban is under pressure from all sides.
For Afghanistan, the Bush administration wants to give President Karzai the tools to provide his people the change they want, and that starts with a further discussion of economic development. - CNA/ch
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