Afghan President Hamid Karzai travelled Tuesday to Warsaw to attend events to mark the 90th anniversary of Poland`s independence and would continue on to New York and London, his office said.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Wednesday around 40 civilians, including women and children, were killed in international air strikes that hit a village in southern Afghanistan.

The president `condemned the air strike which killed around 40 and wounded another 28 civilians in Shah Wali Kot district of Kandahar province,` a statement from his office said.

President Hamid Karzai said Wednesday violence had surged in Afghanistan, admitting his government`s internationally backed efforts to secure the country had failed.

Security had even deteriorated since the Taliban regime was ousted in 2001, the US-backed leader said in an address to hundreds of women gathered from all over Afghanistan for a meeting in Kabul.

KABUL, Sept 30, 2008 (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Tuesday he had asked the king of Saudi Arabia to help engage the Taliban militia in peace talks but that they had not yet started.

The US-backed Karzai said the negotiations had not started yet but Afghan envoys had made repeated trips to the Gulf kingdom and to neighbouring Pakistan to facilitate them.

WASHINGTON, Sept 26, 2008 (AFP) - US President George W. Bush said in talks Friday with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai that he saw much work to do in the strife-torn country, but also 'progress and promise' for the future.

WASHINGTON, Sept 26, 2008 (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Friday thanked US President George W. Bush for freeing his country from the Taliban for improving the quality of life -- and for weathering bouts of yelling.

NEW YORK, Sept 23, 2008 (AFP) - Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai said recent leadership change in Pakistan has offered for the 'first time' a hope of winning the 'war on terror' and called for a joint assault on extremist 'sanctuaries' along their common border.

KABUL, Sept 22, 2008 (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai flew Monday to the United States on an official trip that will include an address to the UN General Assembly and talks with President George W. Bush, his office said.

WASHINGTON, Sept 20, 2008 (AFP) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain's running mate Sarah Palin will meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai next week in New York, a McCain campaign spokesman said Saturday.

Karzai will be in New York with leaders from around the world to participate in the United Nations General Assembly meeting.

KABUL, September 11, 2008 (AFP) - Afghanistan has seen progress since the 9/11 attacks that led to the ouster of the Taliban regime, but it has also suffered much 'pain' in civilian casualties, President Hamid Karzai said Thursday.

SHINDAND, September 4, 2008 (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai Thursday made a tightly guarded visit to a remote village hit by deadly US-led air strikes, promising to arrest anyone whose 'false information' may have guided the attack.

KABUL, September 4, 2008 (AFP) - President Hamid Karzai travelled Thursday to a village where Afghan and UN investigations said more than 90 civilians were killed in US-led air strikes last month, a spokesman said.

KABUL, September 3, 2008 (AFP) - Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai met British actor Jude Law and flimmaker Jeremy Gilley and praised their efforts to promote peace in his war-torn country, the president's office said Wednesday.

KABUL, August 24, 2008 (AFP) - President Hamid Karzai fired Sunday the army general for western Afghanistan after a military operation involving air strikes that he said had killed more than 89 civilians.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai expressed sadness Wednesday over the killing of 10 French soldiers, ...

KABUL, July 7, 2008 (AFP) - Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai called Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to offer his personal condolences for a suicide attack that killed 41 people Monday at India's Afghan embassy.

KABUL, July 7, 2008 (AFP) - President Hamid Karzai said 'enemies' of the strong friendship between Afghanistan and India had exploded a car bomb at the Indian embassy Monday that killed 40 people, including two senior diplomats.

KABUL, July 5, 2008 (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai ordered authorities Saturday to investigate the alleged killing of 16 civilians in an air raid by US-led forces battling insurgents in northeast Afghanistan.

KABUL, July 5, 2008 (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai ordered authorities Saturday to investigate the alleged killing of 16 civilians in an air raid by US-led forces battling insurgents in northeast Afghanistan.

THE HAGUE, June 9, 2008 (AFP) - Afghanistan needs at least a decade to be able to handle its own security, President Hamid Karzai said Monday on a visit to peacekeeping troop contributor The Netherlands.

'Afghanistan ... will have a much better administration by 2010,' he told journalists after talks with Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende in The Hague.

THE HAGUE, June 9, 2008 (AFP) - Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende urged Afghanistan Monday to do more to build its police force amid continuing unrest since the ousting of the Taliban regime in a US-led invasion in 2001.

KABUL, June 9, 2008 (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai headed to The Netherlands Monday for a short visit before a donors' meet in Paris where he will ask for support for a 50.1-billion-dollar development plan.

WASHINGTON, June 7, 2008 (AFP) - US officials are growing increasingly frustrated with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, arguing that he is not up to addressing Afghanistan?s many troubles, The New York Times reported Saturday.

The newspaper said that even a senior State Department official questioned in an interview whether Karzai had the 'trust and the backbone' for the job.

KABUL, May 12, 2008 (AFP) - Several senior Afghan security officials including Kabul's police chief have been suspended and were being questioned over an attack last month against President Hamid Karzai, an official said Monday.

KABUL, May 4, 2008 (AFP) - Afghanistan's government said Sunday the group behind an attempt to kill President Hamid Karzai were linked to Al-Qaeda and two government workers have been arrested for their alleged role in the attack.

Karzai survived the April 27 attack on a military parade, but three other Afghans were killed, including a parliamentarian.

KABUL, April 30, 2008 (AFP) - Afghan security forces Wednesday killed two rebels involved in an attack on President Hamid Karzai, while a woman and a child and three agents also died, the country's spy chief said.

KABUL, April 30, 2008 (AFP) - Two Taliban militants involved in a weekend attack on a parade attended by Afghan President Hamid Karzai were killed in a raid in Kabul on Wednesday, a spokesman for the rebels said.

KABUL, April 28, 2008 (AFP) - Afghanistan's parliament Monday summoned national security leaders for questioning over an attack at a parade that killed three people, including an MP, although President Hamid Karzai survived.

KABUL, April 27, 2008 (AFP) - Bullets sped past President Hamid Karzai and black smoke and the smell of gunpowder filled the air when militants struck Afghanistan's most important military parade Sunday, a minister told AFP.

KABUL, April 27, 2008 (AFP) - Some of the men involved in an attack on a military parade in Kabul Sunday have been arrested, President Hamid Karzai said in a live television address soon after the incident in which he was unharmed.

'Fortunately Afghan security forces quickly surrounded them,' Karzai said. 'Some of them were captured.'

KABUL, April 27, 2008 (AFP) - President Hamid Karzai is safe after an attack Sunday on a parade of the Afghan military in Kabul that was claimed by Taliban extremists, an official in his palace said.

'It is not clear at this stage what exactly happened but the president and other dignitaries are safe,' an official in the presidential palace said on condition of anonymity.

WASHINGTON, April 26, 2008 (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai urged US forces Saturday to stop arresting suspected Taliban and their sympathizers, arguing that these arrests and past mistreatment were discouraging Taliban from laying down their arms.

KABUL, April 21, 2008 (AFP) - Afghanistan is 'committed' to the death penalty in accordance with Islamic law and for national safety, President Hamid Karzai said Monday after calls for him to reject about 100 execution orders.

KABUL, April 6, 2008 (AFP) - Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai said Sunday he may stand for a second term to achieve the goal he set his war-ravaged country following the ousting of the Taliban regime in late 2001.

Karzai, who was elected in the first democratic elections sponsored by the international community in 2004, completes his five-year term in 2009.

BUCHAREST, April 3, 2008 (AFP) - NATO allies made offers of additional troops for Afghanistan that will increase the size of the NATO-led force there 'very substantially,' the NATO chief said Thursday.

KABUL, April 1, 2008 (AFP) - President Hamid Karzai headed Tuesday to a NATO summit where he is to tell countries tackling a Taliban-led insurgency that Afghanistan lacks the capacity to effectively fight terrorism, his office said.

KABUL, Feb 17, 2008 (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned a suicide blast that left up to 80 people dead at a dog fighting match Sunday as an attack on Islamic values and the 'happiness' of ordinary people.

WASHINGTON, Jan 27, 2008 (AFP) - Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai said his country along with Pakistan faces 'gloom and doom' from Taliban insurgents, and called for the world to 'join hands' to defeat the Islamist rebels.