By Nick Childs BBC correspondent at the Pentagon

The US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said that the international community needs to do more to support the government in Afghanistan.

At a Pentagon news conference, he said that international aid is not arriving as fast as it needed to.

There is concern in the Bush administration about the long term stability of the government of Hamid Karzai.

Rumsfeld and Franks want other countries to do more

Mr Rumsfeld said the Pentagon is looking at ways to accelerate Afghan police and army training.

But he insisted the security situation in the country was the best it has been for 25 years.

The key concern, he argued, was providing more money to the Karzai government for civilian support.

"What's needed is the civil side. It needs a court system, it needs the rule of law, it needs the abilities to raise revenues and collect taxes and duties," he argued.

"It needs to guard its borders and to manage its relationships with its neighbours. Those are the things it needs."

Humanitarian support

Standing beside Mr Rumsfeld was the man in overall charge of the US military campaign in Afghanistan, General Tommy Franks.

General Franks said US forces were now engaged in more humanitarian support activities.

But he shied away from describing it as nation-building, something the Bush administration has made clear it is not keen on.

The general said he expected US troops to stay in Afghanistan for years - he even compared it to the situation in Korea - but he would not say in what numbers.

The clear implication of Mr Rumsfeld's remarks was that it was up to other countries to do more.