The Kabul government on Saturday demanded that Washington increase pressure on Pakistan to act against insurgents using its soil to attack Afghanistan, saying Afghans were running out of patience. Afghan President Hamid Karzai held talks with US regional envoy, Marc Grossman, in Kabul just days after President Barack Obama warned Pakistan there were "some connections" between its intelligence services and extremists.
"The Afghan president asked Grossman to put more pressure on Pakistan so that future meetings with them should bring a positive result," one official at the presidential palace told AFP on condition of anonymity. The palace quoted Grossman as promising that the United States will "continue putting pressure on Pakistan to take practical steps forward".
Karzai said further meetings with Pakistan "should bring positive results, because after all these suicide attacks and terrorism the people of Afghanistan are losing their patience," added the statement. US embassy spokesman Gavin Sundwall told AFP that Grossman was on a tour of the region to discuss preparations for international conferences on Afghanistan's future in Istanbul and Bonn later this year. "That's what he met President Karzai about this morning," Sundwall said.