KABUL- NATO’s top civilian official delivered an optimistic assessment of the situation in Afghanistan Friday, telling NATO Defense Ministers the alliance had regained the initiative in the war torn country.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told ministers that a plan to start handing over responsibility for security to Afghans “province by province” would soon be agreed upon.

However, Rasmussen’s optimism was tempered by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

“Our effort is moving in the right direction but the road ahead will be long and hard,” Gates said. “I hope that by the end of year, we will be able to demonstrate that we are making progress throughout the country.”

Optimism in Afghanistan comes as the American and international military surge faces several key challenges.

On Thursday, U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top NATO commander in Afghanistan, admitted that the upcoming operation in the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar would be pushed back several months because local Afghans are not fully cooperating with coalition forces.  And earlier successes in the central Helmand city of Marjah have disappeared as the Taliban has begun reasserting itself in the region.

Political goals have fallen well short of expectations as well.

Corruption remains rife and Afghanistan’s May parliamentarian elections were pushed back to September because of increasing violence and fears of ballot stuffing.

Only half of the Afghan cabinet has been approved by parliament and Afghan President Hamid Karzai recently fired the two top officials overseeing Afghanistan weak security apparatus – both of which were wildly considered by U.S. and western officials as competent and qualified.

Aid and military Resources are pouring into Afghanistan, and U.S. officials believe concrete signs of progress will be visible by the end of the year.