Prime Minister John Key has made a secret trip to Afghanistan, visiting Kiwi troops under a news blackout because of security fears.

Details of the weekend trip were revealed last night after bad weather forced Mr Key to fly out early.

While in Afghanistan, he met Afghan President Hamid Karzai and General Stanley McChrystal, commander of the International Security Assistance Force.

On arrival in the capital, Kabul, Mr Key was flown by helicopter to a meeting with New Zealand SAS members and on Sunday went to Bamyan to meet troops in the Provincial Reconstruction Team.

Mr Key said he had to visit. "This is a dangerous place and I am asking New Zealanders to come here and represent New Zealand but, ultimately in doing that, to put their own lives on the line and I am not prepared to send people to a destination I am not prepared to come myself."

But questions will be asked on his return about the extent to which he put Defence Force personnel and others accompanying him at risk – after he appeared to break with Defence Force practice by taking with him reporters from both major TV stations, two other journalists and a press secretary.

The prime minister's office was aware, meanwhile, by the time of his departure that word was leaking out about the trip - planned months ago - but decided to proceed anyway.

When former prime minister Helen Clark went to Afghanistan in 2003, the Defence Force said the mission would not proceed if journalists were tipped off in advance because it was too much of a security risk.

KARZAI 'ENGAGING'

Mr Key talked of his visit with Harmid Karzai, describing the Afghan president as engaging, and said he had thanked him for New Zealand's help.

Mr Karzai supported the strategy of strengthening Afghan security and police forces by 300,000 recruits before control of security was handed over.

The aim was to reduce the number of troops and replace them with qualified civilians over time, though there would be a military component in Bamyan for "quite some time" due to safety concerns.

Mr Key described the trip to the "breeding ground of al Qeada" as worthwhile.

"No one is under any illusion as to what is at stake here," he told Radio New Zealand.

Mr Key said the importance of New Zealand's involvement in Afghanistan was "huge" and important to global solidarity.

CALL FOR TROOPS TO STAY

General McChrystal wanted New Zealand troops to remain longer and Mr Key said he would consider this.

General McChrystal did not directly ask for an extension, but in an unusual move told reporters that was what he wanted.

"I try to shy away from dealing with the requirements for any country, I think that's for the wider coalition leadership to do. But what I have found is continuity of commitment to the Afghan people is important."

Mr Key would not commit to allowing the contingent to remain.

"We need to wait and see. We've got a lot of domestic commitments with the Rugby World Cup and all sorts of other things ... I can certainly understand their point, which is they have made strong links. They are doing so in actually a very peaceful way, they are working with the Crisis Response Unit, they are working with the Afghan people and they haven't fired their weapons yet."

Mr Key said it was a difficult situation in Afghanistan as the US-led international contingent and the Afghan Government battle an insurgency, a prolific drug trade and corruption.

"It's a complex situation there and it's littered with failure in the past, when you look at other countries like Russia that have gone in to Afghanistan," he told Radio New Zealand.

Mr Key's trip coincides with plans to dramatically scale back New Zealand's military commitment in Afghanistan after a seven-year deployment to the Bamyan province.

The Government plans to replace Kiwi troops with civilians and the next step of that process was today's announcement of Dick Newlands as the first civilian director of the Bamyan provincial reconstruction team, until now a military operation.

Also today, retired brigadier Neville Reilly was named New Zealand's first resident ambassador in Kabul. Mr Reilly was the first commander of the Bamyan team.

SAS MISSION REVEALED

New Zealand Special Air Service troops were involved in an operation in Kabul that saw a terror cell busted and a quarter tonne of explosives seized - foiling plans for suicide bombings and other attacks.

Mr Key revealed the mission when talking to media in Kabul yesterday.



He said the unit had recently had a big success uncovering a massive cache of weapons in Kabul, including missiles and hand grenades.



"In the course of the discussions with the SAS it's been possible to get an understanding of what they are doing and the kind of operations that they've been undertaking...



"What is absolutely the case in talking to the SAS is they have been doing some tremendous work. They were very recently involved in a mission which saw them basically break and destroy a major insurgent effort, they recovered one of the largest caches that we've seen recovered here in downtown Kabul... it was a tremendous cache."



An article in US Army newspaper Stars and Stripes details the operation without naming the Kiwi involvement but Mr Key confirmed it was the same incident.



The SAS last year returned to Afghanistan for an 18-month stint training an elite group of Afghan commandos known as the Crisis Response Unit.



Stars and Stripes said Afghan security forces arrested nine members of a terrorist cell. Intelligence service spokesman Saeed Ansari told the newspaper four of the suspects were arrested while travelling in a vehicle in eastern Kabul while the other five were found at an Islamic school in the city.



Confiscated were a small number of rifles and machines guns, two rocket-propelled grenades, 200kg of explosives, suicide bomb vests and a vehicle.



The suspects ranged in age from 16 to 55 and each had specific jobs within the group. Three were apparently preparing for suicide bombing attacks but the spokesman said there were enough explosives for double the number.



He said the group was acting on orders from a Pakistan-based Taliban faction. It had rented a house in eastern Kabul, shipped weapons across the border and funded the vehicle purchase.

- with MICHAEL FOX, Stuff.co.nz, and NZPA