Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Afghanistan today for her first visit as her country's top diplomat.
Her visit comes on the eve of President Hamid Karzai's inauguration after a fraud-tainted election.
The US and its allies want Mr Karzai to use tomorrow’s inauguration speech to announce concrete steps to fight corruption and govern better, US and Western officials said today.
Mr Karzai’s disputed election victory last August was tarnished by widespread vote rigging.
"The international community will be paying very close attention to that speech but what is more important is what Karzai does afterward," said a senior US official.
A European diplomat said several nations had given Mr Karzai a "shopping list" of what he needed to do including reaching out to his political enemies and combating corruption. They hoped he would refer to those items in his speech.
"We would like some sort of roadmap. We want some clear direction given here," said the diplomat, who spoke on condition he was not named since the matter is sensitive.
Since Mr Karzai was declared winner of the fraud-plagued election, he has been told repeatedly he needs to keep his promise of establishing clean government if he wants to retain support from countries like the United States and Britain where support for the war is waning.
An ABC/ Washington Postpoll released yesterday found that 52 per cent of Americans did not believe the war in Afghanistan was worth the cost.
President Barack Obama is preparing to announce, perhaps next week, a new strategy for the eight-year war, including sending up to 40,000 additional US troops to Afghanistan.
Reuters