FACTBOX - U.S. candidates on Afghanistan and Pakistan

(Reuters) - Candidates Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama have expressed many differences and some agreement in their stated policies towards 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)