"The greatest threat to Afghanistan's future is abandonment by the international community," Richard Boucher, the State Department's pointman for Afghanistan, told a Senate hearing on the turmoil in Afghanistan.

He said the mission in Afghanistan needed more troops and equipment, such as helicopters, pointing out that "too few of our allies have combat troops fighting the insurgents especially in the south."

Southern Afghanistan has seen the worst violence since the Taliban were ousted in the US-led invasion in 2001, after the September 11 terror attacks masterminded by Al-Qaeda, whose leaders, including Osama bin laden, were given sanctuary by the Taliban.

Several top experts, including retired US Marine Corps general James Jones, warned in separate reports Wednesday that Afghanistan could become a failed state. British aid agency Oxfam warned of the risk of a humanitarian catastrophe there unless Western countries made a "major change of direction" in strategy.

The reports came amid new concerns over the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's commitment to providing more troops to fight a resurgent Taliban militia, whose control of the sparsely populated parts of Afghanistan was increasing.

"Success is possible but not assured," said Boucher, who came under intense questioning from Senators at the hearing. "Therefore, the international community needs to continue and expand its efforts."

"We expect more from our NATO allies; we have promised the Afghan people to assist in stabilizing their country, and we must give NATO personnel the tools they need to make good on that promise," he said.

There are about 40,000 NATO and 20,000 US-led coalition force soldiers in Afghanistan at present.

Washington will deploy an additional 3,200 marines this spring -- 2,200 will be deployed to the NATO's southern regional command while the remaining 1,000 marines will train with Afghan forces.

"This is welcome news -- but does anyone truly believe it be enough to turn the tide," asked Democratic Senator Joseph Biden, who heads the Senate foreign relations panel, which held the hearing Thursday.

"If we should be surging forces anywhere, it's in Afghanistan, not Iraq," he said referring to a stepped-up US military strength in Iraq last year which appeared to be bringing the war in Iraq under control.

At the hearing, women from Code Pink, a national anti-war grassroots organization, wore tee shirts with the words "Where's Osama" and held placards "Security thru peace."

"We went to Afghanistan to capture Bin Laden but what has happened now," 66-year-old Joan Stallard told AFP.

Republican Senator Richard Lugar expressed dismay at the "troubling shortfall" of political commitment among NATO members that was hampering the ongoing operations in Afghanistan.

"The time when NATO could limit its missions to the defense of continental Europe is far in the past. With the end of the Cold War, the gravest threats to Europe and North America originate from other regions in the world," he said.

Boucher said that while Afghanistan had made progress on a broad range of fronts, including economic growth, institutional building and on the battlefield, "our job is not finished and important challenges remain."

He also expressed Washington's concern over the increase in detention of journalists in Afghanistan, and interference by the Karzai administration in media coverage of the past year.

"Also troubling," he said, were the deaths of two female journalists last summer and the recent death sentence of a young Afghan journalist, he said.

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