By Adam Entous and Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL (Reuters)- U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Afghanistan on Tuesday, saying he would press President Hamid Karzai to appoint "honest" ministers but playing down the need for a wholesale government shakeup.
In Washington, the Pentagon announced orders for 16,000 troops to deploy, the first wave of 30,000 new reinforcements ordered last week by President Barack Obama. The orders will nearly double the U.S. Marine contingent in the south.
The top U.S. and NATO commander, along with the U.S. ambassador in Kabul, were due to appear in Congress later on Tuesday to explain the new strategy, under which the new troops will be sent quickly but start to leave in 18 months.
Karzai, who is expected to announce his new cabinet within days, is under strong pressure from his Western backers, especially Washington, to crack down on corruption.
A deputy attorney general, Enayat Kamal, said a court had handed down a four-year sentence for abuse of power against Kabul Mayor Abdul Ahad Sayebi in what would be one of the biggest corruption cases in Afghanistan for years.
The mayor's staff said he was working normally, attending a meeting in his office.
During his visit, Gates said he would meet U.S. troops and tell them: "We're in this thing to win."
Gates said he would tell Karzai and other Afghan leaders that Washington will remain "their partner for a long time to come" but expected Kabul to get serious about accelerating the training of Afghan forces to prepare for the day when U.S. troops leave.
Karzai, whose re-election was tainted by rampant fraud in the August 20 vote, pledged in his inauguration speech to name competent and honest ministers and end a "culture of impunity."
Gates said there was a tendency to paint the Afghan government "with too broad a brush" since there are competent ministers and governors under Karzai, singling out the defence and interior ministers for praise.
"We'll all be watching the appointments that get made," Gates said. "It is important to us, in terms of all of our success, including the Afghan success, to have capable and honest ministers in the areas that matter the most to us."
GENERALS TO TESTIFY
The U.S. and NATO commander, General Stanley McChrystal, will give long-awaited testimony in Congress along with the ambassador to Kabul, Karl Eikenberry, a retired three-star general who was one of McChrystal's predecessors as U.S. Afghanistan commander.
It will be the first time McChrystal has appeared before lawmakers since issuing a dire assessment of the war in August that said it would most likely be lost without new troops.
He is expected to face questions about whether the 30,000 troops he is receiving are enough, after being widely reported to have asked for 40,000 in a classified request in September.
Eikenberry will be asked whether he supports the increase after officials leaked word that he had cautioned against sending extra troops without imposing tough conditions on Karzai. The two men say they are in agreement and both back Obama's new strategy.
The new orders will send 8,500 more Marines to southern Afghanistan by spring 2010, nearly doubling the Marine contingent and expanding its headquarters to form a more effective fighting force in the main southern battlefields of Helmand and Kandahar.
Receiving extra combat power before the traditional warm weather fighting season begins was one of McChrystal's key recommendations. The first 1,500 extra Marines will arrive as soon as this month. A 3,400-strong army brigade will be sent on a training mission, and 4,100 support troops will also deploy.
The Pentagon says 20,000 to 25,000 in total will arrive by July, with the rest coming in the following months.
Gates acknowledged the difficulty of moving and equipping all 30,000 of the extra troops by next autumn. Pentagon war planners had initially envisaged a 12-18 month window.
"It's going to be a heavy lift," Gates said.
The escalation will mean there will be 100,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, two-thirds of whom will have arrived since Obama took office.
There are also about 40,000 troops from NATO allies. NATO says allies have committed 7,000 extra troops since Obama's speech, although that figure does not account for nearly 5,000 Canadian and Dutch troops, most of whom are withdrawing.
(Writing by Adam Entous and Peter Graff; Editing by Alex Richardson)
