Soccer star David Beckham arrived in Afghanistan Saturday, along with ministers from Britain's new coalition government, to speak to troops there.
The 35-year-old former England captain, who made his name at Manchester United before going on to play for Real Madrid, Los Angeles Galaxy and AC Milan, was due to take part in a question and answer session with some of the 9,000 British soldiers stationed in Helmand province, the U.K.'s Press Association said.
"I have nothing but admiration for these young men and women and it makes me very proud to be British," he told the Press Association.
"I've wanted to visit Afghanistan for a long time and I hope that in some small way it helps remind everyone at home what an amazing job they are doing out here in very difficult conditions," he added. "I feel very humble."
The sportsman flew out from RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, England, on Friday. He was traveling with U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague, Defense Secretary Liam Fox and International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell, who were due to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai and some of his ministers.
The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government formed after Britain's May 6 election has said its top foreign policy priority is the strategy for Afghanistan.
Speed up U.K. withdrawal
Conservative leader David Cameron said during the election campaign he would not set an artificial deadline for withdrawing British troops from Afghanistan but said they should start coming home in the next five years.
Fox told the Times newspaper in London, however, that the government hoped to speed up the process.
"I want to talk to people on the ground, our trainers, to see whether there is room to accelerate it without diminishing the quality," Fox was quoted as saying.
There must be a distinction between military and humanitarian goals, he told the Times.
"We are not in Afghanistan for the sake of the education policy in a broken 13th-century country. We are there so the people of Britain and our global interests are not threatened."
The British contingent is part of a U.S.-dominated force that is expected to grow to around 140,000 at its height in a few weeks.
Washington is sending more troops to Afghanistan to seize insurgent-held areas before a planned withdrawal starting in July 2011.
"Our most urgent priority is to get to grips with the situation in Afghanistan. It will consume a lot of our time, energy and effort," Hague said in the statement.
Fox said he wanted to see the military situation on the ground and meet senior military commanders and Afghan ministers, while Mitchell said he would be looking at ways to improve the quality and impact of British aid to Afghanistan.
Some 285 British soldiers have died in Afghanistan since 2001, when the NATO mission there was launched.
The ministers' visit allows follows a change in NATO's command structure in southern Afghanistan announced on Friday. Almost all British troops fighting in Afghanistan will now answer directly to a U.S. commander as part of the restructuring.
