Karzai wants foreign troops out within five years

Under tight security at his fortified palace in Kabul, with the Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, British Foreign Minister David Miliband and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton but no President Barack Obama in attendance, Hamid Karzai was inaugurated this morning for a second term as President of Afghanistan.

Responding to demands from the West, Karzai used his speech to promise a national forum to discuss the age-old problem of corruption at all levels of government. He also said he wanted to decrease the number of international troops, with the target of having the country's security in Afghan hands within five years.

The ceremony came as Obama was promising the American media that he was "very close" to reaching a decision on whether to send 40,000 extra troops to the country. "I will announce that decision certainly in the next several weeks," Obama told CNN after leaving China for South Korea.

It is now approaching three months since Obama's military commander in Afghanistan, Gen Stanley McChrystal, first wrote to US defence secretary Robert Gates asking for the extra troops - and warned that the mission would fail without them.

The key reason why Obama is having such trouble making up his mind is because the White House distrusts Karzai as a reliable ally, his previous administration having been marked by corruption and his re-election by widespread fraud.

In an interview with NBC, Obama said that when he does make up his mind, he hopes to be straight with Americans about his decision.

"I'm confident that at the end of this process, I'm going to be able to present to the American people in very clear terms what exactly is at stake, what we intend to do, how we're going to succeed, how much it's going to cost, how long it's going to take," he said.

"I think that's what is owed the American people, because frankly, over the last several years, that's not what they've gotten."

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING
Martin Patience, BBC News: "Most significant was [Karzai's] call for Afghan security forces to take over control of the country in five years. While the Afghan army is improving, some experts say it will need continued support for decades to come in areas where the insurgency is at its strongest. But the intention is there - and that will be important in Washington and European capitals. The allies need to tell their increasingly sceptical publics that this is not a war without end."

Basher Dost, one of the losing candidates in the presidential election, talking to the New York Times: "He [Karzai] believes his power is his warlords, it's the chiefs of tribes. It's not important what is true; what is important is the interest of your family. It's why he cannot fight the warlords and cannot fight the corruption."

Hillary Clinton, speaking on her arrival in Kabul on Wednesday night: "We stand at a critical moment on the eve of the inauguration of President Karzai's second term. There is now a clear window of opportunity for President Karzai and his government to make a compact with the people of Afghanistan."

Richard Beeston, the Times: "Mr Karzai looked and sounded convincing. But the fact that his security forces had to close down Kabul in order to let him hold the ceremony in safety said a lot about the current state of affairs in his country."

Barack Obama, talking to the Washington Post: "He has some strengths, but he has some weaknesses. I'm less concerned about any individual than I am with a government as a whole that is having difficulty providing basic services to its people."

Farooq Bashar, an Afghan political analyst quoted by Al Jazeera: "He has to pick up people who are obedient to the law, who are not corrupt, and who are not involved in human rights violations... We should look at him as a suspicious person. However, we do not need to disregard him." ·