Kabul (AsiaNews/Agencies) – In a press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice said she was optimistic about the war on drugs and democracy taking roots in Afghanistan.

Ms Rice, who is in Kabul on her first official visit to Afghanistan, praised the Afghan government war on the opium trade.

For his part, President Karzai predicted drug production would drop significantly this year. Still, he described efforts to combat drugs as a "long-term fight [that] requires a long-term strategy. Ms Rice agreed. She noted US was providing assistance to Afghanistan in trying to eradicate poppies. For this year, the Bush administration has allocated US$ 780 million to fight the drug trade in the mountain country.

Secretary Rice did not however refer to the State Department's recent grim assessment which said Afghanistan was on its way of becoming a narco-state.

In its March 4 report, the State Department stressed that more than three years after installing a pro-US government, Afghanistan was still unable to contain opium poppy production. Opium poppy is the raw material for heroin.

Rice applauded Afghan steps toward democracy, including last year's presidential elections that marked the first time many Afghans had ever cast votes.

During the press conference, President Karzai announced that the country's parliamentary elections will take place in September. That is a delay from the earlier plan to hold them in May. Karzai rejected any suggestion that the new date marks any backsliding on the march toward democracy, saying that the change was made at the suggestion of an independent election commission and United Nations advisers.

Secretary Rice's visit to Kabul was marred by a roadside bombing which killed at least five people and wounded 32 in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar.

She is on an Asian tour that has already taken her to India and Pakistan. Her next stop is Beijing over the week-end.