Under questioning from senators, General David Petraeus, the commander of US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, repeated his support for Obama's goal of transferring security duties to Afghan forces starting in July 2011.

"But it is important that July 2011 be seen for what it is: the date when a process begins, based on conditions; not the date when the US heads for the exits," he told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"Moreover, my agreement with the president's decisions was based on projections of conditions in July 2011. And needless to say, we're doing all that is humanly possible to achieve those conditions," he said.

Petraeus, 57, who appeared fit and alert after suffering a brief fainting spell that postponed the proceedings on Tuesday, said "rigorous assessments" will be made as the date approaches.

The four-star general and Michele Flournoy, the defense undersecretary for policy, stressed to senators and in a separate session in the lower house that counterinsurgency campaigns are rollercoasters with advances and setbacks.

Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Admiral Michael Mullen told another Senate committee that the Afghan campaign was making headway despite rising casualties and gloomy press reporting.

"I must tell you I have a certain sense of deja vu," Gates said. "Because I was sitting here getting the same kind of questions about Iraq in June of 2007 when we had just barely gotten the surge forces into Iraq."

"This is not something where we do ourselves any favors by tearing ourselves up by the roots every week to see if we're growing," he said.

But lawmakers said they were nervous and worried about the situation in Afghanistan, and many of their questions reflected deep skepticism of the administration's line that things were on track.

Petraeus said it was a positive development Afghan forces "are very much in the fight throughout the country, so much so that their losses are typically several times US losses."

He said they are taking the lead in some areas, including around the capital Kabul.

Senator Carl Levin, the Democratic chairman of the commission, said he was glad to hear of the general's "support for that July 2011 beginning of US troop reduction decision.

"I continue to strongly believe that it is essential for success in Afghanistan for everyone to understand the urgency for the Afghans to take responsibility for their own security," he told the general.

Obama's fellow Democrats support the 2011 deadline for beginning a withdrawal following a surge of tens of thousands of troops this year and are anxious to avoid an open-ended commitment of troops.

Senator John McCain, the Republican senator, welcomed the general's remarks that conditions on the ground would determine when US troop withdrawals begin.

However, he said they appeared to contradict those by a White House spokesman that the July 2011 date was "etched in stone."

McCain told Petraeus on Tuesday there were troubling signs in the form of the delayed offensive in Kandahar, difficulties in Helmand after a February operation and the resignations of the Afghan interior and intelligence chiefs.

Petraeus said security has improved in the southern Helmand town of Marjah, after a much criticized offensive there. He said he could buy bread in a market there accompanied by security but also surrounded by hundreds of Afghans.

He also said he was confident Afghan President Hamid Karzai would replace interior minister Hanif Atmar with another person Washington can work with and said Atmar might return to a cabinet post in the future.

Flournoy meanwhile played down the delay in Kandahar, saying US General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of NATO and US forces in Afghanistan, was simply "taking more time to shape the operation."

If that means delaying some aspects of the operation "to make sure that Afghan ownership takes place," it is not a sign of failure, but "a sign of good counterinsurgency strategy," she told the senators.

Asked by Republican Senator Lindsay Graham if the allies are winning in Afghanistan, Petraeus replied: "Winning in a counter-insurgency campaign means making progress, and in that regard, we are winning."

Congress is expected to soon take up an emergency war spending bill to cover operations in Iraq and Afghanistan that could face election-year resistance from the White House's Democratic allies.

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