Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dismissed speculation on Monday that the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan ( news - web sites ) could drag on for years and said the effectiveness of U.S. bombing was improving every day.
"There is no question that the effectiveness of the bombing is vastly improved as you have people on the ground in communication with the aircraft overhead," he told reporters in New Delhi at the end of a tour of key U.S. allies in the region.
He said there were larger numbers of teams on the ground helping both with humanitarian assistance and targeting. "The effectiveness of the bombing is improving every day," he added.
"Do I think that Afghanistan will take years? No I don't," he said after meeting Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes.
Rumsfeld flew in to India late on Sunday from Islamabad, where he told reporters the Taliban were no longer functioning as a proper government but that the terror networks they harbored still posed a threat to global security.
Rumsfeld made no mention of U.S. concerns that escalating tensions between nuclear-armed foes India and Pakistan over disputed Kashmir ( news - web sites ) could undermine the campaign to oust Afghanistan's purist Islamic Taliban regime.
A parade of big-name visitors, including Secretary of State Colin Powell ( news - web sites ) last month, have urged both countries to put their differences on hold while the assault on Afghanistan is under way. But so far, there has been no reduction in tension.
On Sunday, India said it exchanged heavy fire with Pakistan across the military Line of Control in the Himalayan region of Kashmir.
At least 35 people were also killed in clashes with separatist militants on the Indian side, one of the heaviest one-day death tolls in the insurgency-torn state.
But Rumsfeld played down fears that tension between New Delhi and Islamabad could escalate into nuclear war, amid worries that Islamic militants could seize Pakistan's nuclear warheads if President Pervez Musharraf lost control of the country.