U.S. piles pressure on Afghan leader

By Sue Pleming and Adam Entous

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States squeezed Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday to show more backbone in fighting corruption and mismanagement as President Barack Obama weighed sending more troops and for how long.

Obama left for a week-long trip to Asia amid revelations his ambassador to Kabul, ex-military commander Karl Eikenberry, had expressed deep concerns about sending in more troops until Karzai's government improved its performance.

Senior officials said Obama had discussed Eikenberry's concerns, sent via diplomatic memos, during a war cabinet meeting at the White House where several options were laid out for the president as he deliberates his strategy for the increasingly unpopular war.

At the meeting on Wednesday, Obama called for more information on timelines for troop levels and when Afghan security forces would be competent to take over, according to several U.S. officials.

"It's important to examine not just how we're going to get folks in but how we're going to get folks out," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters.

He said a successful U.S. strategy was "most dependent on the Afghan government being a proven partner." The Obama administration, he said, was working on agreements with Karzai's government over what it needed to do.

"That's part of his (Obama's) desire to get a sense of where we are rather than committing to an open-ended conflict," Gibbs said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates also made this point during a visit to Wisconsin, telling reporters the issue was how best to show resolve while signaling to the Afghans and the American people that it was not an "open-ended commitment."

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she shared concerns raised by a number of leaders about corruption in Afghanistan, a lack of transparency, poor governance and absence of the rule of law.

"Corruption is corrosive in a society," she told reporters on a trip to the Philippines. "The corruption issue really goes to the heart of whether the people of Afghanistan feel that the government is on their side, is working for them."

In Kabul, German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said Karzai must step up efforts to root out crime and corruption.

"Just paying lip service isn't good enough. The Afghan government has to meet these targets," he said.

Germany has about 4,200 soldiers in Afghanistan, the third-largest contingent in the NATO mission that is made up of 67,000 U.S. troops and 42,000 from allied nations.

CONCRETE STEPS

Gibbs said Obama's decision would not be announced until after he returns from the November 12-20 Asia trip. He gave no time but said there probably would be another war cabinet meeting.