Kabul  - US vice president-elect Joseph Biden arrived in Afghanistan Saturday to meet with Afghan leaders and NATO commanders as recent attacks killed five US soldiers, a military official said.

Biden planned to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai and General David McKiernan, commander for NATO-led international troops in Afghanistan, US military spokesman Colonel Greg Julian said.

Biden stopped in Kabul during a fact-finding trip through the region less than a fortnight before his inauguration, Julian said.

Biden was in Pakistan on Friday, where he met President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.

Afghanistan and Pakistan are plagued by a Taliban-led insurgency based in Pashtun-dominated tribal area straddling their porous shared border. Zardari travelled to Kabul Tuesday for a two-day-trip, where he and Karzai vowed to jointly fight the rebels in their countries.

Biden's visit to Islamabad and Kabul demonstrated the priority of the region for the incoming US administration that takes office on January 20. President-elect Barack Obama repeatedly said during his eletion campaign that he would divert the focus from the war in Iraq to Afghanistan.

Biden's visit came after five US soldiers were killed in two separate incidents in southern Afghanistan. Two soldiers were killed in a suicide attack in the Maiwand district of southern Kandahar province, while three others were killed in an explosion in the same region on Friday.

More than 32,000 US soldiers are stationed in Afghanistan as part of nearly 70,000-strong international troops from 41 nations. The US military has announced it will send up to 30,000 additional troops in 2009 to contain the insurgency.

At least 150 US soldiers were among more than 290 foreign troops killed in Afghanistan in 2008, making it the deadliest year for the international forces since the ouster of the Taliban regime in late 2001. (dpa)