Obama in Kabul for unannounced Afghan trip

It was Obama's first trip to the country since he became president 14 months ago.

The brief trip was expected to include a one-on-one meeting with Karzai, an expanded meeting with Karzai's cabinet and US officials, and a speech to American military personnel.

The president left the United States on Air Force One shortly after 10 p.m. EDT on Saturday (0200 GMT on Sunday).

Reporters were taken by bus to the hangar where the plane was kept to maintain secrecy.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, speaking before the trip, said Obama wanted to get an "on the ground update" about the war from General Stanley McChrystal, the US and NATO commander, as well as Karl Eikenberry, the US ambassador.

Obama will press Karzai in face-to-face meetings to crack down on corruption and battle drug trafficking as the US military expands its presence in the country and battles the Taleban insurgency.

"We plan to engage President Karzai as we're going to begin, to make him understand that ... in this second term that there are certain things he has to do as the president of his country to battle the things that have not been paid attention to almost since day one," national security adviser General James Jones told reporters on Air Force One.

Jones declined to say that Karzai was falling short in meeting commitments he had made to reform.

In December Obama ordered the deployment of an extra 30,000 US troops to Afghanistan and set a mid-2011 target to begin withdrawal. General Doug Lute told reporters about 10,000 of the 30,000 additional troops being sent to Afghanistan were now on the ground there; Kazinform cites the Arab News.

See www.arabnews.com for full version