U.S., Afghanistan's Karzai take steps to end feud

Afghan President Hamid Karzai (C) talks as U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke (L) and U.S. Central Command chief General David Petraeus (R) look on at Kabul International Airport April 11, 2010.

WASHINGTON/KUNDUZ, Afghanistan (Reuters) - The United States and Afghanistan took public steps to end a feud on Sunday as the Afghan president toured a city with the U.S. and NATO commander, and Washington called him a "reliable partner."

President Hamid Karzai and U.S. General Stanley McChrystal met hundreds of elders in Kunduz, the third such trip in recent weeks, in what NATO says is part of its strategy of emphasizing the Afghan government's role in military efforts.

That strategy has been strained this month by a row in which Karzai drew the wrath of the White House by accusing Western embassies of carrying out election fraud.

But as both sides recognize they have to work together, they have tried in recent days to smooth over the quarrel. In the strongest conciliatory gesture yet, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates publicly defended Karzai on U.S. television on Sunday, saying the United States saw him as a "reliable partner."

"The working relationship with him on a day-to-day basis is still going quite well," Gates said on CBS's "Face the Nation," sitting alongside Clinton.

"I think what you're hearing from Secretary Gates and me today is: we consider him a reliable partner," Clinton added.

Karzai had plans to address German troops in northern Kunduz on Sunday, but they were called off at the last minute in a sign of the volatility of a once-peaceful region. Residents and German forces said rockets had fallen near the German base.

Kunduz has seen a surge in Taliban attacks and is expected to become a main battle front in coming months.

"I call on the Taliban, the Kunduz Taliban: Brothers! ... Come and have your say, but not by the gun," Karzai told the gathered elders. "You say, 'Foreigners are here'. But as long as you fight, they won't leave."

Later, Karzai and members of his cabinet attended a large strategy-planning session alongside U.S. and NATO officials at a NATO base in Kabul. The U.S. envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, said Karzai's presence symbolized "in a very physical way that we are consulting with the government."

PROTEST AGAINST CHARITY

Still, tension between Afghans and foreigners remains high. In the south, hundreds of people protested against an Italian charity that operates a hospital where staff have been accused of plotting to assassinate a provincial governor.

Demonstrators stood outside the hospital in Lashkar Gah, capital of Afghanistan's most violent province, Helmand, chanting "Death to Emergency!" Emergency is the name of a Milan-based charity that runs a hospital in the city.

Provincial authorities said on Saturday three Italians had been arrested for plotting to kill the governor, bringing arms and explosive vests into the hospital.

"Those who brought explosives into the hospital to carry out an attack must be arrested and tried for their acts," protester Khosrawi Jan said.

On Sunday, the head of Emergency, Gino Strada, told reporters in Milan the arrest of three of its workers was a "set-up" and that Afghan and NATO forces wanted to silence a "troublesome witness" of civilians' suffering in Afghanistan.

"They want to get rid of a troublesome witness. Someone has organized this set-up because they want Emergency to leave Afghanistan," Strada said.

He accused Karzai's government of effectively "kidnapping" the charity's employees -- a doctor, a nurse and a logistics worker -- with the backing of NATO forces.

A spokesman for the NATO-led force said on Saturday no NATO troops were involved in the arrest, but Strada said video footage of the arrest showed NATO soldiers were at the hospital.

Italy, which has around 3,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, has said it is studying the case.

U.S. and British forces launched an offensive in Helmand in February, part of McChrystal's plan to use an extra 30,000 U.S. troops this year to turn the tide against a spreading insurgency and pave the way for troops to begin leaving in 2011.

Increasingly that will mean fighting in northern cities like Kunduz, once seen as safer but now hit by the spread of Taliban influence from their main strongholds in the south and the east.

McChrystal is expected to send 2,500 U.S. troops in coming months to beat back Taliban fighters who have seized much of Kunduz despite the presence of German troops. The Germans operate under post-World War Two restrictions on their combat role, which critics say have allowed the Taliban to advance.

Germany has the third largest contingent in Afghanistan, numbering more than 4,000, but increasing violence in areas it patrols has made the campaign controversial back home.

(Additional reporting by Mohammad Hamed in KUNDUZ, Abdul Malek in LASHKAR GAH, Sayed Salahuddin, Peter Graff in KABUL, Emily Kaiser in WASHINGTON, and Roberto Bonzio in MILAN; writing by Peter Graff and Jonathon Burch; editing by Michael Roddy)