Bush to discuss terrorism fight with Karzai

Washington, Sept 26: President George W Bush on today meets with Afghan President Hamid Karzai to show support for a government that is facing the worst violence since US-led forces ousted the Taliban five years ago.

''America and its allies will continue to stand with the people of Afghanistan as they defend their democratic gains,'' Bush said in his weekend radio address.

The bilateral meeting is a prelude to joint talks with Karzai and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf tomorrow at the White House to discuss fighting terrorism in a region where al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is believed to be hiding.

Some tensions surfaced among the three leaders last week.

Bush in a television interview said he would issue an order to go after bin Laden if there was firm intelligence about his location, including inside Pakistan. That prompted Musharraf to respond that Pakistan would handle such a situation itself.

Karzai told the United Nations last week that foreign troops would not be able to end Taliban violence unless ''terrorist sanctuaries'' outside the country were destroyed, in a reference to Pakistan. Musharraf responded that ''the problem lies in Afghanistan.'' In his autobiography released yesterday, Musharraf said his best guess was that bin Laden was hiding somewhere in Afghanistan's eastern province of Kunar.

Bush has praised Karzai and Musharraf for being courageous in fighting terrorism and said that it was in their mutual interest to make sure Afghanistan succeeds as a democracy.

US-led forces ousted the Taliban from power in Afghanistan in 2001 as a response to the September 11 attacks. Since then, Afghanistan has complained that the Taliban is being sheltered on the Pakistani side of the rugged border.

Musharraf's government this month signed a deal with pro-Taliban tribesmen in the North Waziristan region that critics said may create a refuge for the Taliban and al Qaeda.

Musharraf has disputed the criticism. ''This treaty is not to deal with the Taliban. It is actually to fight the Taliban,'' he said on Friday.

Karzai, in a news conference with Defensce Secretary Donald Rumsfeld yesterday, said the US military was playing a crucial role in Afghanistan and that he was ''taken by emotions'' at meeting wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

''So my message for the American soldiers in Afghanistan is that they have liberated us from tyranny, from terrorism, from oppression, from occupation, into a country that is now moving toward prosperity, that is once again the home of all Afghans,'' Karzai said.

REUTERS

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