By Caren Bohan

WASHINGTON, Aug 2 (Reuters) - The resurgence of al Qaeda and the Taliban looms over next week's talks between U.S. President George W. Bush and Afghan President Hamid Karzai on shoring up troubled efforts to stabilize the war-torn country.

Lending a higher profile to the two-day summit, the talks will be held at the Camp David retreat in Maryland's mountains, a venue the U.S. president reserves for many of his most important meetings.

Violence in Afghanistan over the past 18 months has surged to its worst level since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001.

Karzai's government has been grappling with high civilian casualties amid intense battles by U.S. and NATO-led forces against militants. He is also contending with the crisis of 23 Korean hostages seized two weeks ago by the Taliban and the killings of two of those captives.

In a country with a history of tribal and clan divisions, Karzai has been dealt a weak hand and one goal of the summit will be to bolster the Afghan leader, said James Lindsay, a former foreign policy aide in the Clinton administration.

"The key here is again to signal support for Karzai and his efforts to create a stable government in Afghanistan," said Lindsay, who is now with the University of Texas, Austin.

"It is also aimed at sending a message to a variety of quarters that the administration has not forgotten about Afghanistan," he added.

Karzai enjoys strong support not only from Bush but also from the U.S. Congress.

"He has a big fan club in Washington. He is a man of impressive and good character," said Teresita Schaffer, an analyst with the Center for Strategy and International Studies. "The problem is he has got an impossible job."

White House National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Bush feels Karzai has "taken the right steps" to deal with the challenges he is facing.

U.S. SUPPORT IS 'STRONG'

Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher described the Camp David talks as a strategy session and said the United States would "make clear once again that U.S. support for Afghanistan is strong."

Bush's meeting with Karzai comes just a few weeks before the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks and as Bush has tried to hammer home his commitment to fighting al Qaeda, in particular by emphasizing the role of al Qaeda in Iraq in fueling sectarian violence there.

Bush's critics say the Iraq war has diverted resources from the effort to combat the Taliban and al Qaeda and rebuild Afghanistan.

A U.S. intelligence report warning of renewed threat to the United States from al Qaeda has heightened the criticism and brought reminders of the failure to capture Osama bin Laden.

It cast a spotlight on the lawless tribal region of Pakistan along the Afghanistan border believed to be a safe haven for bin Laden's group and the Taliban.

The strengthening of the militant groups in the rugged Waziristan area of Pakistan is a topic Karzai will want to discuss with Bush.

At a three-way meeting last September in Washington between Bush, Karzai and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, Karzai raised concerns about a truce that Musharraf had signed with tribal leaders in the border region.

The White House has acknowledged the strategy of pursuing the peace agreement had failed.

While U.S. officials have pressured Musharraf to be more aggressive in tackling the tribal area problem, they have remained highly supportive in public of Musharraf, who is considered by the Bush administration to be a crucial U.S. ally and faces challenges to his leadership at home.

(Additional reporting by Paul Eckert)

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