Bush to welcome Karzai Sept 26
US President George W Bush will host President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan on September 26 for talks on the war amid tensions with Pakistan over cross-border violence, the White House said yesterday.
Bush "looks forward to discussing with President Karzai the state of the international community's efforts to improve security, governance, and reconstruction in Afghanistan," spokeswoman Dana Perino said in a statement.
The talks -- their first since a May meeting in Egypt -- will come after the US president attends his final UN General Assembly before leaving office in January 2009.
"This meeting provides President Bush and President Karzai the opportunity to discuss security, the expansion of the Afghan National Army, the upcoming Strategic Partnership talks, and the implementation of political and economic reforms," said Perino.
It also comes amid tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan, which accuses its neighbor of tolerating extremists who cross the border to attack US- and NATO-led forces as well as Afghan targets.
And Bush recently announced that he was increasing the number of US troops in Afghanistan because of concerns over the war with the Islamist Taliban militia and their Al-Qaeda terrorist allies.
There are about 70,000 international forces deployed under NATO and a separate US-led coalition in Afghanistan in an effort to help local forces repel the Islamist rebels.
US Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Michael Mullen warned Wednesday that time was running out to defeat the intensifying insurgency there and said he was "not convinced we're winning."
Mullen, the top military adviser to US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, said he has commissioned "a new, more comprehensive military strategy for the region that covers both sides of that border" between Afghanistan and Pakistan, an area the United States says is being used as an insurgent safe haven.
He called the recent decision by US President George Bush to send 4,500 troops from Iraq to Afghanistan "a good and important start" even though it fell short of commanders' requests for three more brigades or about 10,000 troops.
"Frankly, I judge the risk of not sending them too great a risk to ignore," he said at a hearing before the House Armed Services Committee.
"I'm not convinced we're winning it in Afghanistan. I am convinced we can," he said.
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