Senator Barack Obama met with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan for nearly two hours on Sunday and "conveyed that he is committed to supporting Afghanistan and to continuing the war against terrorism with vigor," an Afghan presidential spokesman said.The meeting, which continued over a traditional Afghan lunch of chicken, mutton and rice, was conducted in a "very friendly environment," the spokesman, Homayun Hamidzada, said.
Mr. Obama and the two other senators traveling with him -- Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska; and Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island -- reaffirmed the United States' bipartisan support for Afghanistan. And Mr. Karzai asked that the senators pass on the "immense gratitude" of the Afghan people to their constituents and the American public, Mr. Hamidzada said at a news briefing after the lunch.
In an interview with CBS News on Sunday, Mr. Obama said: "We have to understand that the situation is precarious and urgent here in Afghanistan. And I believe this has to be our central focus, the central front on our battle against terrorism.
Mr. Hamidzada made light of Mr. Obama's earlier criticism of Mr. Karzai as not getting out of his bunker enough to help Afghanistan develop, saying it was not so much a criticism as a statement of realism. "While we are making progress, we are also facing the significant threat of terrorism that is imposed upon us and on the Afghan people," he said. "We are spending a lot of time and resources on fighting terrorism," he said, adding that the government hoped in the future to spend more of those resources on the development of Afghanistan.
Discussions were mainly on a broad level of Afghanistan's partnership with the United States but did cover the "unmet challenges" the Afghan government has to tackle, in particular fighting corruption, counter-narcotics and regional and global terrorism, Mr. Hamidzada said.
The spokesman did not comment directly on Mr. Obama's campaign pledge to draw down troops from Iraq and send thousands more troops to Afghanistan, and to focus more on terrorist sanctuaries in Pakistan. Mr. Obama has clashed with his presumptive Republican rival, Senator John McCain, about whether the war in Iraq is a distraction in the fight against terrorism.