Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi has arrived in Kabu to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Italian troops, Afghan officials said.
His Christmas trip comes a day after French and Australian leaders also visited and pledged military and financial support for the fight against a growing insurgency led by Taliban militants.
Prodi is expected to travel to the relatively secure western city of Herat where most of Italy's 2,000 soldiers are stationed.
Italy is among several NATO nations that have been hesitant to send soldiers to the restive southern and eastern areas where the insurgents are most active and clash regularly with foreign troops under NATO and U.S. military command.
More than 330 foreign soldiers have been killed in the past two years, mainly in those two areas of Afghanistan, the bloodiest period since U.S.-led troops overthrew the Taliban government in 2001.
The violence has also claimed the lives of hundreds of civilians and hampered development projects in large parts of the south and east from where the largely ethnic Pashtun Taliban draw most of their support.
Under public pressure, Canada and the Netherlands, which have troops in the south, have hinted at not extending the mandate of their stay beyond 2008.
The United States, which forms the bulk of the foreign force in Afghanistan and is fighting the war in Iraq, has been pushing alliance members to take more responsibility in the war against the al Qaeda-backed Taliban.
"The fact that some NATO member nations show disinterest in keeping their forces in Afghanistan beyond 2008 is really worrisome," the English-language Kabul Times said in an editorial on Sunday.
"While the Taliban are gaining more strength as indicated by the increase in the number of suicide bombings in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, the withdrawal of some NATO forces may weaken the morale all around," it added.v The United States needed to expedite equipping Afghan forces as an option, the daily said, a point that has been repeatedly proposed by Karzai whose power does not extend beyond major cities.