NEW DELHI, March 22 (Xinhua) -- The United States special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke said on Saturday that the government of President Barrack Obama regards India's role "critical" in resolving the Afghan problem, reported the Indo-Asian News Service Sunday.

    The news service quoted Holbrooke as saying at an international security conference in Brussels that the U.S. government is consulting India on Afghanistan "every step of the way".

    Holbrooke also said that he and U.S. military chief of general staff Mike Mullin will visit New Delhi after the NATO summit to beheld early April in Strasbourg.

    Holbrooke told the Brussels Forum, the high-level meeting of influential North American and European political, corporate, and intellectual leaders, that while India is not "part of the problem (of Afghanistan)", it is "certainly a major factor in resolving," according to the report.