The struggling, six-year effort to rebuild war-ravaged Afghanistan and the threat from Taliban and al-Qaeda sanctuaries in Pakistan will dominate talks this weekend between US President George W. Bush and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
The more immediate crisis of trying to free 21 Korean hostages seized by the Taliban last month will also be high on the agenda for the Camp David discussions, which will begin today.
Two of the original 23 hostages have been murdered and South Korea is pressing the United States and Afghanistan to do all they can to negotiate a release of the surviving captives.
US officials have described the two-day meeting between Bush and Karzai as a strategy session on Afghanistan, where violence has surged over the last 18 months to its worst level since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001.
Karzai arrives this afternoon at the mountain-top presidential retreat. Tomorrow, the two leaders are to hold a news conference at 11:25am.
The beleaguered Karzai, the target of three assassination attempts, is considered a crucial US ally. Well-spoken and genial, he has strong support in the US Congress as well as within the Bush administration.
But he has had difficulty building a robust central government in a country with a history of tribal rifts and of strong warlord control in many of the provinces.
Karzai is grappling with numerous challenges, including roadside and suicide bomb attacks by the Taliban, mounting casualties to civilians caught in the cross-fire of fighting, and a booming opium trade.
Afghanistan supplies more than 90 percent of the world's opium, and the crop has become a source of cash for the Taliban and a corrupting influence in the government.