Kevin Rudd has thrown his support behind US President Barack Obama's new Afghanistan strategy but the prime minister reaffirmed his position that Australia would not boost troop numbers in the war-torn country.
The two leaders met in the White House Oval Office on Monday with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to discuss a "wide range of issues" from Afghanistan to the upcoming United Nations climate change summit in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Mr Rudd was briefed on Obama's new blueprint for Afghanistan, which is expected to include an injection of 30,000 more US troops and strategies to fast-track the training of Afghan military and police so the responsibility of security can be handed back to the Afghans.
Obama will reveal the details of the plan in a televised address in the US on Tuesday.
"This approach outlined by President Obama is one which Australia fully, I repeat, fully supports in the future," Mr Rudd said, speaking at a press conference in Washington DC after his day of high-powered meetings, told reporters.
Obama's troop surge comes as the American public's support for the war in Afghanistan sinks and allies, including Great Britain, formulate plans to pull their military forces out.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will host a summit in London in January to thrash out Afghanistan issues.
Mr Rudd called on allies to also back Obama.
"I believe all US allies should fully support the approach outlined by the United States," Mr Rudd said.
While Australian forces in Afghanistan will remain at around 1,550, Mr Rudd announced Australia would increase the number of police trainers and civilians to help with Afghanistan's economic and construction effort.
This aligns with Obama's plan.
"I believe what President Obama has developed is a credible strategy designed to achieve success in Afghanistan," Mr Rudd said.
"A key element, which Australia fully supports, is an integrated civilian-military approach designed for the security of the Afghan population as well as better governance for the Afghan people.
"If you look at the overall needs of the Afghan people and the need to stabilise Afghanistan as a country as a whole, we have to lift our collective game on the training of police."
Mr Rudd said he was yet to determine the number of police trainers and civilians to be sent to Afghanistan, but work was already being done on that back in Australia.
Clinton, who lunched at the State Department with Mr Rudd, was full of praise for the prime minister, calling him "one of the real creative thinkers".
"Prime Minister Rudd just had an excellent, comprehensive meeting with President Obama in The Oval Office where we discussed a wide range of issues from climate change to Afghanistan," Clinton told reporters.
Mr Rudd also talked up his time with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
"Of course we discussed the current state of the global economy, we discussed also the future operation of the G20 and proposed two summits to be held in 2010," Mr Rudd said.
Obama has been urged by world leaders, including French President Nicolas Sarkozy, to attend the UN climate change summit in the latter stages of the December 7 to 18 event in Copenhagen. It is in the last few days of the summit that Sarkozy believes the tough decision will be made on binding emission targets.
However, Obama plans to attend on December 9 before going on to pick up his Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo.
Mr Rudd said he supported Obama's attendance on December 9.
Mr Rudd was expected to arrive back in Australia on Wednesday but his plane has been forced back to Washington because of a mechanical fault.
"Due to a minor mechanical fault, the prime minister's RAAF plane has returned to Washington," a spokesman for Mr Rudd told AAP on Tuesday.
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