During the meeting we exchanged our opinions on regional security and stabilization of the situation in Afghanistan, in particular: Wendy Sherman said in Kazakhstan.
The administration of President Barack Obama aims to keep around 10,000 US troops in Afghanistan after formal combat operations in that country end in 2014.
The ex-Soviet states of Central Asia are engaged in an increasingly bitter standoff over water resources, adding another element of instability to the volatile region neighbouring Afghanistan.
Afghanistan has launched a new literacy programme that enables Afghan women deprived of a basic education during decades of war to learn to read and write using a mobile phone.
Britain should accept defeat and move all of its soldiers out of Afghanistan as quickly as possible, former Liberal Democrat party leader Paddy Ashdown wrote in Friday's The Times newspaper.
Afghanistan is considering action against the International Crisis Group, with officials on Monday accusing the respected think-tank of bias in its reporting on the troubled nation.
Najeeban in southern Afghanistan is a ghost village, deserted by the surviving inhabitants after a murderous rampage allegedly carried out by a rogue American soldier earlier this year.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has warned of possible problems ahead over the sensitive issue of immunity from prosecution for any American or NATO soldiers deployed in the country after 2014.
A private security company working for the US government in Afghanistan is in hot water after a video surfaced allegedly showing several of its employees drunk and on drugs.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has made a surprise visit to Afghanistan, seeking assurances from President Hamid Karzai that he is doing all he can to halt "insider attacks".
Three-quarters of African countries and several "Arab Spring" nations are at high or extreme risk of a food crisis, according to an analysis published on Wednesday.
Afghan women activists are urging the global community to ensure hard-won progress in Afghanistan in the past decade is not lost amid fears that as US and NATO-led troops leave they will be forgotten.
US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has voiced frustration with Afghan President Hamid Karzai preferring to "criticize" American troops, rather than acknowledging the sacrifices they have made.
America's "forgotten war" in Afghanistan, is missing in action again, squeezed out of the campaign narrative as President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney duel for the White House.