Bush promises Karzai aid, says no to U.S. peacekeepers

WASHINGTON -- President Bush promised Afghan leader Hamid Karzai a "lasting partnership" including economic aid and training for a national military on Monday but turned aside a request for U.S. troops as part of a peacekeeping force.

Americans will help build a new Afghanistan "free from terror, free from war and free from want," Bush told Karzai as the tri-colored flag of the visitor flew in the White House Rose Garden for the first time in nearly four decades.

The president said the United States would help train a national military and police force for the central Asian nation that has weathered Soviet invasion, warlords, the terrorist-harboring Taliban and, most recently, battering U.S. military strikes.

Bush was not receptive to Karzai's interest in having U.S. forces remain in Afghanistan as part of a multinational peacekeeping force.

Ruling out such a direct role, Bush said the United States will support the international security force and stands ready to help if its "troops get in trouble."

"Better yet than peacekeepers ... let's have Afghanistan have her own military," Bush said.

He pledged a $50 million loan to help Afghanistan attract U.S. business investment and $3 million from the Labor Department to create jobs.

Afghanistan's goals

In their joint appearance under an unseasonably warm sun, Karzai thanked the United States for its help in driving the Taliban from power and defeating Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida forces in Afghanistan.

Karzai said the goal of his impoverished country is to remain "a good partner" and never let terrorists re-infest Afghan lands.

"I assure you, Mr. President, that Afghanistan -- with your help, and the help of other countries, friends -- will be strong and will stand eventually on its own feet, and it will be a country that will defend its borders and not allow terrorism to return to it or bother it or trouble it," Karzai said.

A business-suited delegation of 15 Afghan officials, including one woman, accompanied Karzai on his historic trip to the White House -- the first visit to Washington by an Afghan leader since King Zahir Shah was invited by President Kennedy in 1963.

A breeze played with the folds of the green, red and black Afghan flag standing near the Oval Office where Bush and Karzai met.

With a long, striped green robe draped over his sport coat, Karzai stood at Bush's right arm and spoke easily in English.

'We know that pain'

The Afghan people know better than most the horror Americans suffered on Sept. 11, Karzai said. "The Afghans have suffered exactly in the same way. We have sympathy. We know that pain."

The Afghan leader was succinct -- and curt -- when a reporter asked about the failure to capture bin Laden so far. "We are looking for him. He's a fugitive. If we find him, we'll catch him. Thank you very much," Karzai said, turning on his heel and ending the joint news conference.

Earlier, Karzai presided over a flag-raising ceremony at the Afghan Embassy, which was shuttered five years ago after the Taliban militia seized power in Afghanistan and the United States refused relations.