FACTBOX: Obama, McCain: Quotes on Afghanistan, Pakistan

(Reuters) - Candidates Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama have expressed many differences and some agreement in their stated policies toward Afghanistan and Pakistan ahead of the November 4 U.S. presidential election.

Here are some comments from Obama and McCain, and their respective vice presidential nominees, Joe Biden and Sarah Palin, made in televised debates.**

AFGHANISTAN

* OBAMA:

"General McKiernan, the commander in Afghanistan right now, is desperate for more help, because our bases and outposts are now targets for more aggressive Afghan/Taliban offences."

"We're ... going to have to work with the Karzai government, and when I met with President Karzai, I was very clear that, 'You are going to have to do better by your people in order for us to gain the popular support that's necessary'." (October 7)

* MCCAIN:

"We have to double the size of the Afghan army. We have to have a streamlined NATO command structure. We have to do a lot of things. We have to work much more closely with the Pakistanis."

"But most importantly, we have to have the same strategy (as in Iraq of a U.S. troop buildup)." (October 7)

* BIDEN:

"Our commanding general in Afghanistan said the surge principle in Iraq will not work in Afghanistan ... He said we need more troops. We need government-building. We need to spend more money on the infrastructure in Afghanistan." (October 2)

* PALIN:

"The surge principles, not the exact strategy, but the surge principles that have worked in Iraq need to be implemented in Afghanistan, also. And that, perhaps, would be a difference with the Bush administration." (October 2)

TROOP LEVELS

* MCCAIN:

"There have been 20,000 additional troops, from 32,000 to 53,000, and there needs to be more. It's not just the addition of troops that matters ... Pakistan is a very important element in this." (September 26)