Afghanistan's fledgling army and police forces, the Afghan official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information publicly.

Pelosi, D-Calif., and Karzai discussed plans announced last week by the Bush administration to ask Congress for $10.6 billion for Afghanistan, a major increase aimed at rebuilding the country and strengthening government security forces still fighting the Taliban five years after the U.S.-led invasion.

About $8.6 billion would be for training and equipping Afghan police and soldiers; $2 billion would go toward reconstruction.

Pelosi, D-Calif., led a delegation of six other congressional Democrats to Afghanistan to meet with military and government leaders after traveling to Iraq and Pakistan.

The trip comes two weeks after Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., visited the region. Clinton, who entered the 2008 presidential race a week ago, said this month that U.S. leaders should be talking about increasing troop numbers in Afghanistan instead of Iraq.

The attention being paid to Afghanistan by Democrats is a way for them to highlight their seriousness about the fight against international terrorism and say that the Bush administration "led us in the wrong direction" in Iraq, said Marvin Weinbaum, a former State Department analyst on Afghanistan, now scholar at the Middle East Institute.

"It makes a lot of sense, then, to highlight Afghanistan as where the real source of terrorism began and where it still has to be dealt with so that the Democrats come out of this not looking like they're weak-kneed when it comes to battling terrorism," Weinbaum said.

The Pentagon last week said a brigade of U.S. soldiers would stay in Afghanistan four months longer than planned — an effective troop increase of 3,200 soldiers. That announcement came only days after a visit here by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

Pelosi, meanwhile, has led a drive in Congress against President Bush's plan to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq as part of a new security crackdown in Baghdad.

Pelosi told Karzai that Afghanistan has bipartisan support in Congress, the Afghan official said. Members of the delegation also told Karzai they hope to see more coordination and cooperation between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Earlier on Sunday, the delegation spent about an hour at the main U.S. base in Bagram, where she thanked soldiers from the 10th Mountain and 82nd Airborne divisions for their service, said Lt. Col. David Accetta, a U.S. military spokesman. She also met with Maj. Gen. Benjamin Freakley, the top U.S. general here.

The seven-member delegation also met with U.S. Ambassador Ronald Neumann and Gen. David Richards, the outgoing commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan.

The delegation did not talk to reporters.

The members of Congress stopped in Pakistan on Saturday, where Pelosi met with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to discuss the situation in Afghanistan and cooperation in countering terrorism.

Pelosi's delegation earlier visited Iraq, where she met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

The delegation also included Rep. Ike Skelton (news, bio, voting record) of Missouri, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee; Rep. Tom Lantos (news, bio, voting record) of California, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee; and Rep. John Murtha (news, bio, voting record) of Pennsylvania, a strong advocate of a phased pullout of U.S. troops from Iraq.