THE government is deeply pessimistic about Australia's engagement in Afghanistan and officials have described as hopeless the key task of training the Afghan national police.

Despite repeated public assurances that gains are being made in Afghanistan and that long-term success is possible, secret US embassy cables reveal that some of our top diplomats and officials hold grave concerns about the prospect of success in the nine-year war that has claimed the lives of 21 Australian soldiers.

The cables, obtained by WikiLeaks and made available exclusively to the Herald, also include further embarrassing revelations about the conduct of the Foreign Minister, Kevin Rudd.

Mr Rudd derides the contribution of France and Germany to the fight against the Taliban as ''organising folk-dancing festivals'' and confides that the outlook in Afghanistan ''scares the hell out of me''.