US president-elect Barack Obama told Afghan president Hamid Karzai he would make it a priority to fight terrorism and bring security to Afghanistan and the region, the Afghan presidential palace said today.
Mr Obama has pledged a new focus on Afghanistan when he becomes president in January, but while still a candidate he criticised Mr Karzai for failing to tackle corruption, the booming drugs trade and for "not getting out of the bunker" to govern effectively.
But Mr Obama assured Mr Karzai of more US cooperation with the Afghan government to combat terrorism and bring security.
"Obama said America will increase its commitment to bring security and stability to the government and people of Afghanistan," the Afghan president said in a statement.
"Obama also emphasised that combating terrorism and bringing security to Afghanistan, the region and the world would be a priority of his government," the statement said.
In a seperate development. Afghanistan's foreign minister said the country could oppose the presence of foreign troops on its soil if they do not cooperate with Afghan forces to defeat the Taliban-led insurgents across the country.
Mr Karzai and his government have become more vocal in recent weeks in their criticism of Western forces in Afghanistan and their failure to quell the escalating Taliban insurgency after more than seven years of conflict.
Top Taliban and al Qaeda leaders are still at large and security is getting worse by the day, raising doubts about the prospects of stability in Afghanistan.
The country's foreign minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta said Mr Karzai had recently told nations with troops in Afghanistan to dispatch their soldiers to the border to block militants moving from safe havens inside Pakistani territory.
Failure to do so would push the Afghan government to voice opposition to the presence of foreign troops.
"For the Islamic state of Afghanistan, it is by no means bearable any more for parts of our country to be under the occupation of criminals, drug traffickers, al Qaeda and terrorist Taliban," Mr Spanta told a news conference.
"We earnestly want the international community to cooperate with Afghanistan's national police and army to bring back those areas under the government's control," he said. "Otherwise, Afghanistan's government will not agree (to the presence of foreign troops)."
Mr Spanta said he hoped the 41 nations with troops under NATO and US command in Afghanistan would listen to the government's demand, but if they did not Kabul would rely on its own security forces, despite the dangers that would entail.
Mr Spanta said he had raised the issue with his visiting Danish counterpart Per Stig Moller.
The Danish foreign minister did not refer directly to the demand in the joint news conference, but said foreign forces should focus on development projects once they clear militants from an area.
Denmark would also boost the number of its troops in Afghanistan from around 600 at present to up to 750 soldiers.
"The new troops will be ready from January 2009," Mr Moller said, but did not say how many extra troops would be sent.
Denmark was implementing a strategy that would take it up to 2012, he said. Most Danish troops are fighting under British command in the volatile southern province of Helmand, a Taliban stronghold which produces around half the world's supply of opium.
"Today the world has become so small that what happens here also affects us back home in Europe," he said.
Reuters