Bush seeks united front from Afghanistan, Pakistan

WASHINGTON – President George W Bush hosted the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan at a White House dinner late Wednesday, urging them to end their war of words and unite, with US help, against the common threat of Islamist “extremists”.

With presidents Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan silent and stiff by his side in the White House Rose Garden, Bush praised them as his “personal friends” with strong stakes in the war on terrorism. The three leaders broke bread in a stately White House dining room in an effort to ease tensions that Bush aides say undermine efforts to quell surging Taliban violence and to hunt down terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden.”They understand that the forces of moderation are being challenged by extremists and radicals,” said Bush, who has come under renewed pressure to find bin Laden ahead of critical November US legislative elections.The US president, gesturing towards Musharraf, said the al-Qaeda chief “wants to hurt my friend here,” seeks to “upset the democracy in Afghanistan” and must be “brought to justice”.A brief White House statement after the dinner said Bush, Musharraf and Karzai had made a commitment to support “moderation and defeating extremism through greater intelligence sharing, (and) coordinated action against terrorists”.Karzai and Musharraf have been waging a war of words over which country bears the brunt of the blame for the surge of attacks by the Taliban militia in Afghanistan, amid Afghan charges that Pakistan is coddling extremists.In an interview with CNN television on Wednesday, Karzai charged Pakistan was “not doing enough at all” to rid Islamic schools of teachers who are “training extremists full of hatred for the rest of the world”.He also renewed his accusation that Taliban leader Mullah Omar had found refuge in Pakistan after US-led forces ousted the militia for refusing to hand over its sponsor bin Laden, the architect of the September 11, 2001 attacks.And Musharraf on Tuesday used an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to accuse him of being “concerned more about himself than about Afghanistan.”Nampa-AFPThe three leaders broke bread in a stately White House dining room in an effort to ease tensions that Bush aides say undermine efforts to quell surging Taliban violence and to hunt down terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden.”They understand that the forces of moderation are being challenged by extremists and radicals,” said Bush, who has come under renewed pressure to find bin Laden ahead of critical November US legislative elections.The US president, gesturing towards Musharraf, said the al-Qaeda chief “wants to hurt my friend here,” seeks to “upset the democracy in Afghanistan” and must be “brought to justice”.A brief White House statement after the dinner said Bush, Musharraf and Karzai had made a commitment to support “moderation and defeating extremism through greater intelligence sharing, (and) coordinated action against terrorists”.Karzai and Musharraf have been waging a war of words over which country bears the brunt of the blame for the surge of attacks by the Taliban militia in Afghanistan, amid Afghan charges that Pakistan is coddling extremists.In an interview with CNN television on Wednesday, Karzai charged Pakistan was “not doing enough at all” to rid Islamic schools of teachers who are “training extremists full of hatred for the rest of the world”.He also renewed his accusation that Taliban leader Mullah Omar had found refuge in Pakistan after US-led forces ousted the militia for refusing to hand over its sponsor bin Laden, the architect of the September 11, 2001 attacks.And Musharraf on Tuesday used an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to accuse him of being “concerned more about himself than about Afghanistan.”Nampa-AFP