Bush, Karzai stress need to work with Pakistan

CAMP DAVID, Maryland (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai and US President George W. Bush agreed yesterday that Pakistan must help quell deadly violence inside Afghanistan, but broke sharply on Iran's regional influence.

One day after Karzai called the Islamic republic "a helper" against extremists, Bush blasted the government in Tehran as "not a force for good" and vowed to pursue efforts to isolate Iran over its suspect nuclear program.

"We will continue to work to isolate it because they're not a force for good as far as we can see, they're a destabilizing influence wherever they are," Bush said at a joint news conference with Karzai, who did not mention Iran.

The two leaders, wrapping up two days of talks at the presidential retreat 70 miles (112 kilometers) outside Washington, said they hoped for improved cooperation between Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan after talks in Kabul that are due to start on Thursday.

"I hope very much that this jirga will bring to us what we need, which I think it will," said Karzai. "Our enemy is still there, defeated but still hiding in the mountains. And our duty is to complete the job."

The US president said the assembly would focus on "how we can work together -- how you can work together -- to achieve common solutions to problems. And the main problem is to fight extremism."

US officials have been increasing pressure on Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to crack down on Taliban extremists and Al-Qaeda terrorists targeting Karzai's government from bases inside Pakistan's remote tribal areas.

Karzai and Musharraf were due to address a meeting in Kabul Thursday of 700 tribal elders and other influential figures from both countries called to try to find ways to address the insurgency.

Bush, sidestepping a question that has been roiling the 2008 race to succeed him, declined to spell out whether he would seek Pakistan's permission to strike at extremists inside its borders if he had "actionable intelligence."

"I'm confident that with actionable intelligence we will be able to bring top Al-Qaeda to justice," he said. "We're in constant communications with the Pakistan government."

Pakistan has denounced US warnings -- including from Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, but also from top Bush aides -- of possible strikes at extremists inside its territory without permission.

Bush said Karzai had "rightly expressed his concerns about civilian casualties" stemming from US or NATO strikes inside Afghanistan, and that he had assured his guest "we do everything that we can to protect the innocent."

"He is as much concerned as I am, as the Afghan people are. I was very happy with that conversation," said Karzai, who in the past has been sharply critical of the civilian toll from operations against the Taliban Islamist militia.