KABUL, Afghanistan - Vice President-elect Joe Biden made a surprise visit to the Taliban's traditional stronghold in southern Afghanistan on Sunday and said the new U.S. administration will fully support troops battling the resurgent militants.
President-elect Barack Obama has promised to end the war in Iraq and refocus U.S. military efforts on Afghanistan, where spiraling violence has claimed thousands of lives and is threatening efforts to stabilize the country.
Thousands of new American troops will be joining the battle against the Taliban this year, and Biden's visit is a sign that Obama plans to make the region an immediate priority.
"I am very interested in what becomes of this region because it affects us all," Biden said during his visit to Kandahar province, according to a statement issued by the NATO-led force. Biden was on the second day of his trip to Afghanistan.
During his time in Kandahar, Biden was briefed on activities of coalition forces in the south by Dutch Maj. Gen. Mart C. de Kruif, NATO's regional commander.
They discussed "the future of southern Afghanistan, to include the addition of American troops later this year," the statement said.
The U.S. is rushing up to 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan and some will go to the southern provinces.
Some 32,000 U.S. troops already in Afghanistan serve alongside 32,000 other NATO-led and coalition troops, the highest number since the U.S.-led invasion to oust the Taliban from power began in 2001.
In 2008, 151 American troops died in Afghanistan, more than in any other year since 2001.
In Kandahar, Biden "reaffirmed his and President-elect Barack Obama's pledge to fully support troops and their efforts in the region," the statement said.
America's top general in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, told Biden on Saturday that thousands of new American troops expected in the country's south will need more support items "like helicopters, engineers, military police, transportation assets," said Col. Greg Julian, a U.S. military spokesman.
Southern Afghanistan has become the center of the Taliban-led insurgency, which left some 6,400 people -- mostly militants -- dead in 2008 alone.
British, Canadian, and Dutch troops bore the brunt of the fighting in the south in the last two years, and NATO's call for other nations to join the fight there have fallen on deaf ears.
Compounding the problem, the region is also the world's largest drug producing area, and hundreds of millions of dollars from the trade finance the insurgency.
Biden's visit to Afghanistan follows his trip to neighboring Pakistan, where he met with President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.
The U.S. senator from Delaware will take office as vice president on Jan. 20.
