Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned the Afghanistan government on Sunday that it cannot count on long-term US support, demanding President Hamid Karzai takes concrete steps to tackle graft.

Clinton starkly defined the limits to the US war effort as aimed at eradicating al-Qaeda and not toward establishing a modern democracy, as President Barack Obama mulls the possibility of sending more US troops there.

"We're not interested in staying in Afghanistan. We have no long-term stake there. We want that to be made very clear," Clinton told ABC news.

"We agree that our goal here is to defeat al-Qaeda. That has been a clear goal and a mission from the president ever since he made his commitment of additional troops back in the spring."

And with Obama expected to make another fateful troop decision soon after his return from Asia next week, Clinton turned up the heat on Karzai over alleged widespread corruption in his administration.

"There does have to be actions by the government of Afghanistan against those who have taken advantage of the money that has poured into Afghanistan in the last eight years so that we can better track it and we can have actions taken that demonstrate there's no impunity for those who are corrupt."

US demands progress

Clinton said Washington expected Karzai to set up a major crimes tribunal and an anti-corruption commission and warned that millions of dollars of US civilian aid was contingent on seeing progress on graft.

Karzai, for his part, has called on the West to do its part to clamp down on corruption.

Obama on Friday promised to announce his Afghan strategy review soon as he edges closer to a decision on reinforcing the 68 000 US troops that will be fighting in Afghanistan by the end of the year.

His administration has sought to deflect claims from the Republican opposition that the commander-in-chief is dithering and does not have the stomach for making tough decisions.

Clinton provided a reminder that Obama was taking a very different approach than his predecessor, former president George W. Bush, whose administration pledged to spread democracy in troubled regions of the world.

"This is not the prior days when people would come on your show and talk about how we were going to help the Afghans build a modern democracy and build a more functioning state and do all these wonderful things," she said.

"That could happen, but our primary focus is on the security of the United States of America. How do we protect and defend against future attacks?

"We do not want to see Afghanistan return to being a safe haven and a staging platform for terrorism as it was before. That is what is driving the president to make the best decision he can make."

Top White House advisor David Axelrod said a decision was near and joined repeated warnings from Obama's administration in recent weeks that the US deployment in Afghanistan would not be "open-ended."

"Obviously, we can't make an open-ended commitment and we want to do this in a way that maximises our efforts against al-Qaeda, but within the framework of bringing our troops home at some point," he told CNN.

"There has to be a framework to this decision. But we're getting close. It's been a good process."

Fraud-tainted elections

Obama's decision has been complicated by the fraud-tainted elections in Afghanistan which saw Karzai re-elected to a second term.

Karzai, who was installed as Afghan leader following the 2001 ouster of Taliban militants by a US-led invasion, has largely fallen from favour amid persistent allegations of corruption.

Differences have also emerged between key US figures on how to proceed with US ambassador to Kabul Karl Eikenberry expressing serious doubts about sending more troops before Karzai's government gets to grips with the corruption.

The ambassador's position apparently put him at odds with Afghan war commander General Stanley McChrystal, who wants more than 40 000 extra US troops and has warned that without them the mission is likely to fail.

The war also faces opposition from the American public, with some 800 US soldiers having lost their lives in Afghanistan and the number of casualties rising. October was the deadliest month for US forces there since 2001.

The White House has said Obama will not announce his next move in the eight-year old war before he returns to the United States from the four-nation Asian tour on Thursday.

AFP

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