US vice president-elect Joe Biden and President Hamid Karzai met for several hours Saturday, discussing all aspects of US help for Afghanistan's efforts to fight extremists and rebuild, an official said. Biden was in Kabul on a short visit 10 days before he was due to take office alongside president-elect Barack Obama, who has said Afghanistan will be a priority for his administration.
The senator's meeting with Karzai was "fruitful and productive" and included commitments to continued co-operation in the war against terrorism, the Afghan president's spokesman Homayun Hamidzada told AFP. The United States led the invasion that removed the Taliban regime from power in 2001 and provides the bulk of the international troops fighting an insurgency by the extremists, and is also pouring in development aid.
The talks also touched on Afghanistan's efforts to build government and establish rule of law, fight its illegal drugs trade, and build its institutions especially in the security sector, Hamidzada said. Biden met a host of other officials in Kabul on the multi-billion-dollar international military and development effort in Afghanistan, which has been criticised as disjointed and wasteful.
US General David McKiernan, the most senior commander in the country and head of the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force, gave him an operational and intelligence briefing, ISAF said in a statement. Biden also thanked US troops serving here for their "big sacrifice", it said.
A meeting with UN special representative Kai Eide "touched on security, political, and development issues including donor co-ordination, police reform, and regional co-operation," the UN office here said, referring to priority areas. Interior Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar separately requested more for the building of the national police force, said a statement from the ministry. It cited Biden as saying: "Security in Afghanistan in the struggle against terrorism is our priority and the police have a key role in this."