Miliband to Discuss Afghanistan With Hillary Clinton in Washington Today

David Miliband is to discuss the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan with Hillary Clinton in Washington today.

Miliband will become the first foreign minister to hold face-to-face talks with Clinton since she became US secretary of state.

The US is conducting a review of its Afghanistan policy against a background of growing disillusionment with the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, whose government is riddled with corruption and who has failed to extend government control much beyond Kabul.

The US may ask the UK to provide more troops for Afghanistan. Barack Obama spoke repeatedly on the election campaign trail of a need to secure the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, at present used as a safe haven by the Taliban and al-Qaida.

The state department said on Monday that Miliband and Clinton would also discuss Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Clinton, who was sworn in as secretary of state on Monday, has spoken by phone to her counterparts around the world, including several times with Miliband.

Diplomats have battled over who would be first into Washington to see the new administration, so the Foreign Office will regard it as a coup that it was Miliband. Obama's first call to a European leader was to Gordon Brown.

After meeting Miliband, Clinton is to see the German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier.