WASHINGTON - Laura Bush says she has been waiting a long time to tell the women of Afghanistan that American women stand with them.

The first lady was to be in the country for about five hours today, time to visit women who are training to be teachers and others who have made a business of selling handicrafts. She was also to meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and have dinner with U.S. troops stationed at Bagram Air Force Base north of Kabul.

Mrs. Bush had wanted to visit Afghanistan for a couple of years but delayed the journey, mostly because of security concerns about travel to the war-torn country, where American forces are still battling a stubborn Taliban-led insurgency. Her trip was kept secret until just before she left from Andrews Air Force Base near Washington.

"I have been so looking forward to going to Afghanistan," she told reporters on the tarmac of the military base in suburban Maryland. "When I really realized the plight of the women under the Taliban, I also found that American women really stand in solidarity with the women in Afghanistan."

"I'm delighted to be able to bring that message to Afghanistan," Mrs. Bush added. "This has been in the planning for quite some time. I didn't tell anyone."

A former teacher and librarian, Mrs. Bush has expressed concern about the limited educational opportunities for Afghan girls under the former Taliban regime.

"We want to encourage them to send their girls to school to get educated," Mrs. Bush said Tuesday. "We are very, very interested in their well-being and then, of course, in the broader Middle East as well. I think it is a message to them that the United States stands with people who are building their democracies."

For most Afghan women, little has changed since the Taliban's ouster. Women's literacy rates are just 14 percent, far below the literacy rate for men, and maternal mortality is about 60 times that of industrialized countries, with an Afghan mother dying every half-hour on average.

Girls outside of cities still do not often go to schools. Some are back to wearing burkas, or all-covering veils. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the Bush administration is working to advance the rights of women in Afghanistan.