Kabul:
US General David Petraeus arrived in Kabul on Friday to take over as commander of the Afghan war, a NATO official said.
"General Petraeus arrived in Kabul by plane at 1400 GMT and took a helicopter to ISAF headquarters," the official said referring to NATO's International Security Assistance Force.
Petraeus takes over as commander of the 140,000 US and NATO soldiers in Afghanistan who are fighting Taliban insurgency amid growing concern that the war is bogged down as troop casualties reach record heights.
He is expected to make his public debut in Kabul on Saturday, when he attends celebrations at the US embassy marking the Fourth of July as United States' Independence Day.
His appointment was confirmed in Washington on Wednesday, in a 99-0 Senate vote, a day before the House of Representatives approved a bill to pump another US $37 billion into the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The funds will cover the cost of deploying an extra 30,000 troops to turn around the faltering campaign, as part of a counter-insurgency strategy devised by Petraeus and supported by US President Barack Obama.
Petraeus replaces US General Stanley McChrystal, sacked last month after he was quoted in Rolling Stone magazine disparaging US officials, including the President, and leaders of NATO allies also committed to the war.
A four-star general, Petraeus has said he will not alter strategy, despite complaints from soldiers that they are hamstrung by the rules of engagement, and an alarming rise in the number of foreign troops dying on the battlefield.
He has vowed to give his forces the right firepower to fight the Taliban but insisted sparing civilians remained a priority.
Civilian casualties are an incendiary issue in Afghanistan, where many civilians blame the very presence of foreign forces for the ongoing violence.