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British and US troops need to move 'further and faster' in stabilising the country, prime minister says in press conference with Hamid Karzai

David Cameron today set the stage for an eventual withdrawal of British forces from Afghanistan when he declared that Britain and the US needed to move "further and faster" in stabilising the country.

In his first visit to Kabul as prime minister, Cameron said that nobody in Britain or Afghanistan wanted troops to remain a day longer than they were needed.

Speaking in Kabul after flying in amid tight security, the prime minister said Afghanistan was his No 1 foreign policy concern â€" although sending more British troops to the country was "not remotely on the UK's agenda".

Cameron announced a series of measures to help stabilise the country and to strengthen the British military effort to hasten the withdrawal:

• A doubling of the number of teams, from 10 to 20, dealing with improvised explosive devices. This will cost £67m and will be paid for from the Treasury reserve.

• An extra £200m to be diverted to Afghanistan from the existing international development budget.

• More efforts to inform people in Britain of progress. There will be quarterly reports to parliament by the foreign secretary, William Hague, or the defence secretary, Liam Fox.

• A declaration that further deployments of British troops are "not remotely" on the agenda.

Speaking alongside Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, Cameron said that Afghanistan was Britain's "most important foreign policy issue, the most important national security issue facing our country, and it is that national security approach I want to stress here today. That's why I was so pleased to welcome President Karzai as my first visitor to Chequers [last month]."

Cameron said that he wanted a "very clear focus" on Britain's national security interests, which meant stopping the return of al-Qaida.

But he made it clear that he wanted to see faster progress in Afghanistan. "We should all the time be asking: can we go further, can we go faster? Nobody wants British troops to be in Afghanistan a moment longer than is necessary. The president doesn't, the Afghan people don't, the British people don't."

Cameron said the additional aid funding for Afghanistan would be used to build up its army, police and civil service capacity in what he said was a crucial year to make progress in stabilising the country.

"I've described this year â€" and the president, I know, agrees â€" in terms of the Nato mission in Afghanistan as the vital year. This is the year when we have to make progress â€" progress for the sake of the Afghan people, but progress also on behalf of people back at home who want this to work."

Cameron said that alongside the Nato-led military surge which has been under way for six months, there must be a "proper political settlement".

He welcomed last week's Kabul peace meeting â€" or jirga â€" at which Karzai discussed proposals to encourage elements of the Taliban to rejoin the political mainstream.

Elaborate security precautions were put in place for Cameron's trip, which comes just over a week after insurgents launched a rocket attack on the peace jirga in Kabul. The rockets exploded near the jirga tent as Karzai invited the Taliban to follow a peaceful path.

A news blackout was imposed until this morning on today's trip, which started when Cameron left the Commons yesterday after prime minister's questions for a civilian flight to Abu Dhabi. The prime minister, accompanied by his new national security adviser, Sir Peter Ricketts, and other senior No 10 officials, was picked up in the Gulf by an RAF C130 Hercules aircraft for a four-hour flight to Kabul.

Cameron wants to use today's trip to show four groups that Afghanistan will be his top foreign policy priority. The groups are: the 9,500 British troops in Afghanistan, most of whom are fighting the Taliban in the south in Helmand province; British voters, many of whom have told opinion pollsters that they cannot understand why Britain is still committed to Afghanistan; Karzai; and Barack Obama, who will receive the prime minister at the White House next month.

Cameron will today offer important support for Karzai, who is regarded warily in Washington for failing to do enough to tackle corruption.

Karzai alarmed many western leaders on Sunday when he sacked two highly regarded security officials, ostensibly for failing to prevent the attack on the peace jirga. Amrullah Saleh, the head of Afghanistan's intelligence agency, and Hanif Atmar, the interior minister, had both served Karzai since he became president in 2002.

Saleh was understood to be uncomfortable with a key concession from Karzai as he reaches out to elements of the Taliban â€" to release Taliban prisoners who faced evidence that is too weak to convict them.

Cameron is keen to adopt a fresh approach to Afghanistan after the last government was damaged by persistent reports that it had failed to equip British troops properly when the decision was taken to deploy to southern Afghanistan in 2006.

In all, 294 British servicemen and women have died in Afghanistan since Britain deployed there in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

Lance Bombardier Mark Chandler, 32, of 3rd Regiment Royal Horse Artillery, became the 294th victim yesterday when he was killed in Helmand during a gun battle with insurgents in the province's Nad-e Ali district.

Cameron may have to show some humility today after the defence secretary, Liam Fox, ran into trouble for using pejorative language about Afghanistan to illustrate the government's belief that stability comes first. Fox said British troops were not in Afghanistan "for the sake of the education policy in a broken 13th century country".

Asked about this today, Karzai said: "Afghanistan has suffered for the past 30 years. Afghanistan has lost nearly 2 million people in the past 30 years. Afghanistan has lost the cream of its society through migration to the rest of the world .... In that sense Afghanistan has become a broken country. Perhaps that is what Mr Fox was referring to ... Perhaps he was describing the factual situation in Afghanistan which unfortunately Afghanistan has suffered so massively."