Reaffirming the US commitment to Afghanistan and giving a clear indication of the topmost foreign policy priority of the Obama's administration, the vice president-elect Joe Biden arrived in Afghanistan early Saturday to conduct talks with senior political and military leaders of the country fighting against extremists.

According to diplomats, Biden has a comprehensive understanding of Afghanistan, since he has made several trips to the country during his fairly long term as the chairman of the influential Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

During his one-day visit, kept confidential apparently for security reasons, Biden is scheduled to meet the country's President Hamid Karzai, as well as US General David McKiernan, who is commanding the 65,000-strong international troop present in Afghanistan.

Among the first decisions US President-elect Barack Obama is likely to make is the approval of the deployment of nearly 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, with the aim to stalk the intensifying Taliban uprising, prior to the country's September elections. Most of the new soldiers would be deployed to the south, where troops are beleaguered and many areas are beyond government control.

President Karzai has urged Obama's administration to take appropriate action towards ending civilian casualties in the military action - most often air strikes - against the insurgents.

After Obama won the presidential election in November, Karzai had said: "My first demand from the US president, when he takes office, would be to end civilian casualties in Afghanistan and take the war to places where there are terrorist nests and training centres."