Most Afghans support President Hamid Karzai's bid to have long-term security ties with the United States, the president's spokesman said after a gathering of more than 1,000 chiefs and regional leaders on Sunday. The question of whether US forces should be given permanent bases in Afghanistan has sparked debate in a country with a long history of resisting foreign intervention and in a region where big powers have long competed for influence. Afghanistan's relationship with the United States was one of the main issues Karzai raised with the assembly of national representatives he summoned for talks on Sunday.
"Our findings from today's discussions were that people, on the whole, (are) very positive about this, and I think that people are thinking, by and large, exactly the same line as we had expected," Karzai's spokesman Jawed Ludin told a news conference after the assembly.
Karzai would discuss Afghanistan's strategic relations with the United States when he meets President George W. Bush on a US visit this month, Ludin said.
The possibility of permanent bases was raised in February when US Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican, said during an Afghan visit they would be in the interests of US and regional security.
Karzai had appeared to favour permanent bases, and his defence minister said Afghanistan was eager for "enduring arrangements" with the United States.
But some opposition to the suggestion has been raised in newspaper commentaries and among the public, and Karzai has avoided giving a clear answer on the question, saying he would ask Bush for long-term security protection for Afghanistan.
The United States says it wants to prevent Afghanistan becoming a "breeding ground for terrorists" and the country also has strategic significance given its border with Iran and its proximity to Russia and China.
The assembly of Afghan tribal chiefs, elders and representatives of ethnic groups and regions was held at the heavily fortified presidential palace and was only open to a handful of state media representatives.
The gathering of delegates of a traditional assembly known as a loya jirga, which endorsed a constitution in early 2004, is the closest thing Afghanistan has to a parliament until a national assembly is formed after a September 18 election.
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