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 Under the current plan, the United States will halve the number of
troops in Afghanistan to just over 5,000 this year, gradually
winding down to a "normal" U.S. embassy presence by the end of 2016.
That schedule could now change, at least in part, suggested Carter
on his first trip abroad since swearing in as the Pentagon chief on
Tuesday, as the United States also rethinks the future of its
counter-terrorism mission in Afghanistan.
His remarks set the stage for talks next month when the Afghan
president is expected in Washington.
"Our priority now is to make sure this progress sticks," Carter said
at a joint conference with President Ashraf Ghani, hours after
landing in Kabul.
"That is why President (Barack) Obama is considering a number of
options to reinforce our support for President Ghani's security
strategy, including possible changes to the timeline for our
drawdown of U.S. troops."
Ghani said he expected to discuss U.S. troop numbers with Obama "in
the context of the larger partnership."
 U.S. General John Campbell, who leads international forces in
Afghanistan, suggested his focus for now was sustaining enough U.S.
trainers, advisors and counter-terrorism forces in Afghanistan
during 2015 and 2016, not what happens later.
"Right now I think we're comfortable looking at '15 and '16,"
Campbell told reporters traveling with Carter.
The current strategy has drawn sharp criticism from Republicans in
Congress, who say that hard-won gains made against the Taliban could
be lost in much the same way that sectarian violence returned to
Iraq after the U.S. withdrawal.
Afghanistan's national army and police suffered heavy losses last
year, the bloodiest since the war against Taliban militants began in
2001.
The emergence of a small number of militants in Afghanistan aligning
themselves with Islamic State, which swept into northern Iraq last
summer, has underscored anxieties about the dangers as foreign
forces withdraw.
Carter said Islamic State's presence in Afghanistan appeared
"aspirational"."
But he also acknowledged the future of the U.S. counter-terrorism
mission was also under review.
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"We are discussing and rethinking the details of the
counter-terrorism mission and how the environment has changed here
with respect to terrorism, since we first laid out our plans,"
Carter said.
Discussions about the way forward in Afghanistan, Carter said, were
possible thanks to political progress in Kabul, where Ghani's
pro-Western unity government succeeded former president Hamid Karzai
last year.
Once the darling of the international community, Karzai made
fervently anti-Western speeches in his later years in power and
resisted U.S. pressure to sign a crucial security treaty.
Carter, who this week became Obama's fourth defense secretary, is a
former Pentagon No. 2 with deep roots in U.S. policy on Afghanistan.
He said Saturday marked his tenth official visit to the country,
even though it was his first at the helm of the Department of
Defense.
Neither he nor Ghani made predictions about peace efforts with the
Taliban, after senior Pakistani army, Afghan and diplomatic
officials said the Afghan Taliban signaled they were willing to open
peace talks.
But Ghani sounded upbeat.
"The grounds for peace have never been better in the last 36 years.
Our approach is productive. We're hopeful," Ghani said.
"But categorical answers in a peace process are dangerous."
(Writing Phil Stewart and Kay Johnson; Editing by Nick Macfie;
Editing by Ruth Pitchford)
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