In a damage control exercise, president Hamid Karzai has pledged to strengthen ties with the US as he spoke to secretary of state Hillary Clinton to "clarify" his remarks in which he blamed the West for fraud in the Afghan elections last year.
"Afghan president Karzai called secretary Clinton today to clarify his statements ... and they had a constructive conversation," assistant secretary of state for public affairs, PJ Crowley, said last evening after the telephonic conversation between the two leaders.
Karzai spoke to Clinton a day after his statement in Kabul that there was "a very widespread fraud" in presidential and provincial council elections in Afghanistan, but "Afghans did not do this fraud. The foreigners did this fraud."
Crowley said Karzai, during his conversation with Clinton, reaffirmed his commitment to the bilateral partnership and expressed appreciation for the contributions and sacrifices made by the international community for Afghanistan.
"They pledged to continue working together in a spirit of partnership," he said in a statement.
Earlier in the day, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Karzai's remarks in which he blamed the West for meddling in Afghan polls were "genuinely troubling" and sought a clarification from the Afghan President on this.
The State Department also said US ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberery, met Karzai on the issue.
"We are seeking clarification from president Karzai about the nature of some of his remarks. I think the president (Barack Obama) was quite clear with President Karzai over the weekend of the necessary steps that have to be taken to improve governance and corruption in order to deal with the problems that we face there," Gibbs said.
"There were allegations of fraud. Allegations were looked into. Ballots for a number of candidates were thrown out. But the Afghans elected President Karzai. That's all been dealt with. The focus has to be on moving forward and on the type of credible governance that is necessary to stabilise that country," he said.
Responding to questions, Gibbs said: "Obviously some of the comments of President Karzai are troubling. They're cause for real and genuine concern. The amount of resources that have been dedicated to both deal with extremists in Afghanistan as well as to help set up the type of government necessary at all levels to deal with."
The White House spokesman said the US has a national security interest in ensuring that there is not a safe haven in Afghanistan for al-Qaeda to plan attacks against the United States as they did on September 11, 2001.
