President Hamid Karzai has met General David Petraeus in the country's capital Kabul. Petraeus was recently appointed the United States' most senior field commander.

Earlier on Saturday, Petraeus arrived in Afghanistan to take command of the 150,000-strong NATO-led troops. Petraeus has been given the task of winning the war against a growing Taliban insurgency.

He is also expected to oversee the gradual withdrawal of US forces from July next year. Karzai has held talks with the Taliban in a bid to end the nearly nine-year war. But the hard-line Islamist movement has rejected making any deal until all foreign forces leave.