Too early to send more US troops to Afghanistan: Kerry

[Waqas 48]

WASHINGTON: Senator John Kerry says it is "irresponsible" to send more US troops to Afghanistan at this time, amid a deepening election crisis that has placed the Kabul government''s legitimacy at stake.

The United States should not proceed with a new Afghanistan strategy committing a potentially major increase in US resources, including tens of thousands more troops, without first securing a clear partner in Kabul, Kerry told CNN during a visit to Afghanistan, in a interview to be aired Sunday.

"It would be entirely irresponsible for the president of the United States to commit more troops to this country, when we don''t even have an election finished and know who the president is and what kind of government we''re working in, with," said Kerry, chair the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"When our own commanding general tells us that a critical component of achieving our mission here is, in fact, good governance, and we''re living with a government that we know has to change and provide it, how could the president responsibly say, ''Oh, they asked for more, sure -- here they are''?"

Afghan President Hamid Karzai''s government has been plagued by uncertainty and questions of legitimacy after allegations of widespread fraud in the August elections, whose preliminary results put Karzai on top.

Kerry, a Democrat who lost his 2004 bid for the White House to former Republican president George W. Bush, was in Afghanistan ahead of an anticipated announcement on whether a run-off election would be held between Karzai and his main challenger, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah.

Speaking to CBS television, meanwhile, Kerry said he did not see how Obama "can make a decision about the committing of our additional forces, or even the further fulfillment of our mission that''s here today, without an adequate government in place or knowledge about what that government''s going to be."

He said it was time for Karzai to "step up" and explain how they could be a viable partner in the US and NATO-led mission to rout out Taliban militants and build a stable Afghanistan eight years into the war.

Excerpts of the interviews were provided by the networks and they were to be aired in full on their respective Sunday talkshows.