WASHINGTON, Jan 31: The United States warned on Thursday that despite a marked improvement in relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan, success in the war against extremists in Afghanistan was not assured.

Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs Richard Boucher told a Senate hearing on Afghanistan that Washington fears the international community could abandon that country.

President Karzai’s recent visit to Islamabad has brought “a very positive set of changes” in the Pakistan-Afghan relationship, he said.

Both countries now recognise that they face a common threat and this has created “an opportunity to do more … both on the popular level (and) also the government-to-government and the military level,” he said.

But he warned that “the greatest threat to Afghanistans future is abandonment by the international community.”Mr Boucher 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.”

He said that while Afghanistan had made progress on a broad range of fronts, “our job is not finished and important challenges remain.”