A NATO commander has said that the coalition forces' goal in the upcoming Kandahar campaign in Afghanistan is to help raise citizens' trust in their government.

The American Forces Press Service reported on its Web site that speaking from Afghanistan to reporters at the Pentagon in a video news conference Wednesday, British Army Gen. Nick Carter said: "It's about connecting the population to its government. That requires building representative governance from the bottom up."

Carter, who commands the international forces in southern Afghanistan, spoke as operations in Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban, are set to begin by next month.

He said, "We'll define success here by ... credible, transparent, inclusive and representative governance that is genuinely connected to the population."

It was also noted by the report that the Kandahar operation comes on the heels of a massive four-month campaign by U. S. and NATO troops along with Afghan security forces to drive the Taliban from their stronghold in Marja and neighboring areas in nearby Helmand province, the center of Afghanistan's drug trafficking activities.

Kandahar would involve legitimizing the local government for its people, Carter said.

Carter further said that the province is estimated to have about 1,000 insurgents who, will pose a military challenge as they have "a degree of control over the battle space" in the rural north and south regions of Kandahar City. (With Inputs from Agencies)