By Andrew Gray

WASHINGTON, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Afghanistan needs better governance even more than it needs extra U.S. troops to fight insurgents, the top U.S. military officer said on Monday.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, made his remarks as the Pentagon released a report which described Afghanistan's government as one of the world's weakest, hampered by pervasive corruption.

His comments came amid growing criticism of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's administration, which hit back on Sunday by calling for more scrutiny of foreign aid donors.

"The number one need I've got (in Afghanistan) is governance," Mullen said.

"That is not something the United States military is going to provide, although when we're put in that position we can learn pretty quickly and make a difference," he said.

With Afghanistan in the grip of the worst violence since U.S.-led forces toppled Taliban Islamists from power in 2001, the U.S. military has drawn up plans that would almost double the number of U.S. troops there to around 60,000.

President Barack Obama is widely expected to order at least some of those extra troops to be deployed soon.

Mullen said extra forces would help U.S. and NATO troops conduct more effective counter-insurgency operations by holding onto territory once they have forced out insurgents.

But he said effective government was necessary to convince ordinary Afghans that they would be better off with the country's Western-backed leaders than the Taliban.

"The center of gravity in Afghanistan are the Afghan people," he said in remarks at lunch organized by the Reserve Officers Association in Washington.

Mullen's comments reflect a view among U.S. military officers that they can only succeed if ordinary Afghans believe they are being treated fairly by local and national officials and see concrete improvements in their daily lives.

But the scale of the challenge was underscored by the Pentagon's semi-annual report to the U.S. Congress on Afghanistan, which said the country had "one of the weakest governments in the world."

"It is hampered by pervasive corruption and a lack of sufficient leadership and human capital," the report said.

"Afghan ministries lack resources and are all too often permeated by corruption, entrenched bureaucracy, and weak leadership," it said.

The report said the Afghan central government was "widely viewed as extremely corrupt among the Afghan populace."

Mullen said U.S. civilian agencies should get additional capacity so they could be more involved in stabilizing weak states such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

"I think we're badly out of balance right now. The military's doing too much," he said.

"The military side of this is a necessary part of the equation. It is not sufficient." (Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

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