First lady Laura Bush waved from the White House on Thursday as a video camera transmitted her greeting to Afghan women gathered around a table nearly 8,000 miles away in Kabul.

“This videoconference is going to give all of us a chance to talk about the successes and the challenges that still face women in Afghanistan,” she told Afghan women entrepreneurs sitting in their country’s capital.

It was her last U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council meeting as first lady. After leaving the White House next month, she will continue to be privately involved in the council, but it will be managed at Georgetown University.

“We all know both in the United States government, the Afghan government and the private sector that the women of Afghanistan still need a lot of encouragement,” Laura Bush said. “We do know that because of years of lack of education, a lack of health care, of extreme poverty that women in Afghanistan still face many, many challenges.”

Violence in the country is rising, especially in the south, and U.S. commanders have called for up to 20,000 more U.S. troops to join the 31,000 already in Afghanistan. The Taliban and other extremists, operating from sanctuaries outside the country have significantly increased the levels of violence and are contesting control of important areas of the country.

Mrs. Bush said increased violence had not hampered the council’s efforts, but she acknowledged that some women fear those who sympathize with the hardline Taliban regime.

“Women in Afghanistan _ and I know this from women that I’ve met _ are afraid,” she said. “I mean not all of them are, of course, but some are. And the women who are around this table, that we just watched are very, very courageous to do things that, in many parts of Afghan society, are still not considered things that women should do.”

Mrs. Bush, who has made three trips to Afghanistan, has served for several years as honorary chairwoman of the U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council, which promotes public and private partnerships to help Afghan women participate and assume leadership roles in their country. To date, the council has worked on more than 30 initiatives worth about $124 million in the areas of economic empowerment, education, political participation, health, and children’s issues.

After the meeting, Mrs. Bush invited the group to the Executive Mansion where President George W. Bush dropped by.

“I just came back from Afghanistan,” he said. “And I told the people there that the United States will not forget them, that it’s essential that the people in Afghanistan realize that even though the presidents have changed, our commitment to Afghanistan remains very strong _ at the governmental level as well as in the private sector.”