Gillard heads to Lisbon for the NATO talks

The NATO talks are expected to focus on the future of the war in the Afghanistan and the timing for a handover to the local security forces.

Ms Gillard says she will be emphasising that the transition to the Afghan control cannot be rushed.

The Prime Minister will be back in Australia in time for the Parliament on Monday.

Earlier today, Ms Gillard wrapped up the three-week debate on Afghanistan in the House of Representatives.

During the debate many politicians on both sides spoke in defence of Australia's involvement in the war.

But Greens MPs and senators and independent MP Andrew Wilkie demanded troops be brought home immediately.

Ms Gillard reiterated her intention not to have Australia abandon Afghanistan and said she would be arguing the point at the NATO summit.

"Our eyes shouldn't be on the calendar, they should be on the ground and working out whether the time to transition should be right," she told Radio National.

"We shouldn't transition out only to have to transition back in some time later."

Man accused of metro bomb plot trained for Afghanistan

A Pakistani-American man arrested on charges of plotting to bomb the Washington metro was in training to go to Afghanistan and had experience with the firearms, the FBI alleged in a court document released Thursday.

An FBI agent seeking a search warrant told a judge that Farooque Ahmed, 34, "is using his firearms to train for his ultimate goal of traveling to Afghanistan to fight and kill Americans," according to the document.

The agent said that conclusion was based on secretly recorded conversations between Ahmed and people he thought were members of Al-Qaeda, but who in reality were undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation agents.

"Ahmed wishes to fight Jihad himself, and (said) that he has trained to do so using various firearms," the document said.

It added that the suspect had previously discussed buying and using weapons, including rifles and a shotgun, and that he had either purchased or attempted to purchase firearms in May 2008 and February 2009.

"Ahmed also noted that he studied martial arts for four years, learned knife and gun techniques and learned disarming techniques," the document said.

It alleged that Ahmed said he could teach others the skills he had learned and offered to give 10,000 dollars to Al-Qaeda "to support their brothers overseas."

An American citizen since 1993, Ahmed lived in suburban Ashburn, Virginia. He was arrested Wednesday after several months under surveillance as authorities mounted a sting operation.

He had cased out and videotaped several metro stations, including those for Arlington Cemetery and the Pentagon, for an alleged plot to simultaneously detonate bombs in them.

Authorities said the public was never in danger. Ahmed faces up to 50 years in prison if convicted.