Kabul, Afghanistan ? A U.S. general arrived in Afghanistan on Monday to meet with Afghan commanders and discuss the daunting task of building a national army in a country where most fighters are loyal only to their tribal leaders or local warlords.

Maj. Gen. Charles Campbell, chief of staff of U.S. Central Command, is meeting with the head of the Afghan army, Asif Delawar, and the Afghan military’s top intelligence, training and logistics officers as part a mission to create a new training program for the Afghan army, a military representative at the U.S. Embassy said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The mission is crucial if Afghanistan is to have a stable future.

Campbell’s meetings are “to get a sense of what is the Afghan vision of their own army” and to “help build a multiethnic … credible Afghan force,” the military representative said.

Afghanistan’s central government has no standing army. Afghan fighters have decades of guerrilla war experience but Afghan forces are divided between local warlords and tribal commanders.

Experts say that building a national army out of fighters whose primarily loyalty has long been to their regional commanders could take years.

Afghan officials estimate that some 700,000 Afghans are armed. Afghan Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim has said that he wants a standing army of no more than 200,000 men.

Campbell will be in the country for a week and is expected to submit a report to the U.S. Defense Department outlining plans to train an integrated Afghan force.

U.S. soldiers are expected to arrive in the country in about a month to begin training an Afghan force of about 600 men, the official said. The officers of that battalion would be expected to go on to train future army units, the official said.

“Within a month we will at least if not begin training have the core training group on the ground here,” the official said.

It is not clear if all of the training officers would be Americans or if some would be from other coalition countries. Campbell’s assessment will work on the premise that all of the trainers will be from the United States, the official said.

Training a brigade is likely to take several months, the official said. It is not clear how much it would cost.

Campbell on Tuesday will visit Afghan army training facilities, most of which were heavily bombed in U.S. air raids and earlier fighting.

The commander of U.S. ground forces in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. Paul T. Mikolashek was also in Kabul Monday to meet with U.S. and Afghan military commanders to discuss progress in the war against terrorism, the official said. Mikolashek arrived Sunday.