The U.S decided to keep the additional forces in the country temporarily because planned troop commitments by U.S allies for a NATO train-and-assist mission starting in January have been slow to materialize. NATO countries were supposed to contribute about 2,200 troops to the residual force, for a total of about 12,000.

Hagel, who arrived in Kabul on a previously unannounced trip one day after Obama announced he would nominate Ashton Carter to succeed him, was making his fourth and final trip as Defense secretary to Afghanistan. He was brimming with optimism about the prospects for stability, saying he believes the Afghans will stifle the recent surge in Taliban attacks in Kabul.

The Taliban, Islamists who ruled the country from 1996 until ousted by U.S.-led forces in 2001, regrouped substantially after the U.S shifted its military focus to Iraq in 2003. They are now trying to destabilize Ghani's new government.

Hagel said they have failed in that effort so far and are not likely to succeed.

"I have confidence in the Afghan security forces that they will continue to meet these challenges," he said.

However, he said it's not surprising the Taliban are able to mount significant attacks in the capital.

"The Taliban are going to continue to have pockets of resurgence, and it's predictable that they would do everything they possibly could to disrupt" the new government.

In September, the United States and Afghanistan signed a long-delayed security agreement to allow 9,800 troops to remain past the end of this year. U.S and Afghan officials had agreed on terms of the accord over a year earlier, but then-Afghan president Hamid Karzai refused to sign, complaining that U.S airstrikes had killed Afghan civilians and that the U.S had made overtures to the Taliban.

Last month, President Obama approved a plan to let U.S troops protect themselves and allies in Afghanistan. The plan allows airstrikes to aid U.S., allied and Afghan troops, but was not intended to allow offensive operations against the Taliban.

The changes reflect a more cooperative role with the new government in Kabul; Ghani enjoys a stronger relationship with the U.S than Karzai did.

The United States had a peak of about 100,000 troops in Afghanistan in 2010 and 2011, according to the Pentagon. The U.S combat mission officially ends Dec. 31, and U.S troops are to be removed entirely by 2017.

U.S Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel is greeted after arriving Dec. 6 in Kabul.(Photo: Mark Wilson, AP)

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