Obama aims to limit damage from Afghan war leak

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange holds up a copy of a newspaper during a press conference at the Frontline Club in central London, July 26, 2010.

WASHINGTON/KABUL (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Tuesday played down the gravity of leaked Afghanistan war documents, while the Afghan government accused the United States of ignoring Pakistan's role in the Taliban insurgency.

In his first public comments over the leak of some 91,000 classified U.S. military reports, Obama said it underscored the need to stick with his strategy in the nine-year-old war.

Obama, who is sending 30,000 more soldiers to try to break a resurgent Taliban, also called on lawmakers to approve $37 billion in funding for the war effort.

"While I'm concerned about the disclosure of sensitive information from the battlefield that could potentially jeopardize individuals or operations, the fact is these documents don't reveal any issues that haven't already informed our public debate on Afghanistan," Obama told reporters.

The House of Representatives was debating whether to fund the troop increase, with a vote expected later on Tuesday. The measure, already passed by the Senate, calls for $33 billion for the military and $4 billion for a related civilian surge.

Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, will testify on Wednesday before a House panel and could face sharp questions from its chair Nita Lowey, who said in June said she would cut billions of dollars in aid for Afghanistan because of reports of corruption.

The documents, made public on Sunday by the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, detail allegations that U.S. forces sought to cover up civilian deaths and describe American concern that Pakistan secretly aided Taliban militants even as it took billions of dollars in U.S. aid.

Some analysts said the revelations could be damaging as the White House seeks to shore up sagging public support for the war while setting the stage to start withdrawing U.S. troops by Obama's target date of July 2011.

The Afghan government, which is seeking more control over foreign aid, said Washington has pursued a contradictory policy in the war by ignoring Pakistan's links to the insurgency. But experts said Pakistan's relationship with the United States is unlikely to be changed by the leak.

"INCREASED OUR COMMITMENT"

In Afghanistan, the remains of one of two U.S. sailors who disappeared last week were found in the east of the country and the search continued for the second man, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said.

The Afghan government and NATO officials disputed each others' accounts of reports that more than 50 civilians were killed in a NATO rocket attack on Friday when they were caught up in fighting in Helmand province.

Government spokesman Siamak Herawi said 52 people died, many of them women and children. The NATO-led force said a preliminary investigation had not yet revealed any civilian casualties.

Civilian deaths caused by foreign forces are a major source of friction between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Western backers, whose 150,000 troops are engaged in an increasingly bloody war with the insurgents.

In its first reaction to the leaked documents, Afghanistan's National Security Council said the United States had failed to attack the patrons and supporters of the Taliban hiding in Pakistan throughout the war.

"With regret ... our allies did not show necessary attention about the external support for the international terrorists ... for the regional stability and global security," the council said in a statement.

Afghanistan has long blamed Pakistan for meddling in its affairs, accusing its neighbor of plotting attacks to destabilize it. Pakistan, whose military and spy agency have had long-standing ties to the Taliban, denies involvement in the insurgency and says it is a victim of militancy itself.

Obama, speaking after a meeting with congressional leaders, said the leaked reports "point to the same challenges that led me to conduct an extensive review of our policy last fall."

"For seven years, we failed to implement a strategy adequate to the challenge in this region, the region from which the 9/11 attacks were waged and other attacks against the United States and our friends and allies have been planned," Obama said.

"That's why we've substantially increased our commitment there, insisted on greater accountability from our partners in Afghanistan and Pakistan, developed a new strategy that can work and put in place a team, including one of our finest generals, to execute that plan."

(Additional reporting by David Fox, Jonathon Burch and Hamid Shalizi in Kabul and Chris Allbritton in Islamabad; Writing by Will Dunham in Washington; Editing by John O'Callaghan)