Aide denies Karzai threatened to join Taliban

Hamid Karzai's spokesman denied reports that the Afghan leader threatened to join the Taliban insurgency if he were pressured further by foreign backers, in an apparent attempt yesterday to calm worsening tensions with Washington.
Karzai's comments, allegedly made in a meeting with lawmakers on Saturday, had been widely reported by The Associated Press and others, prompting the White House to say a planned Washington visit might be cancelled if Karzai didn't stop blaming the US for his problems.
However, Karzai spokesman Waheed Omar said Karzai's government had been shocked to see the comment appearing in media outlets, and did not know where it came from.
The Afghanistan government has put "fighting against terror and fighting against those who put the lives of Afghan people in danger as priority No 1," Omar told a news conference.