Afghan Karzai to press Bush for greater control

President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, in the United States for the first time since he was elected, is expected to ask President Bush for greater control over American military bases in Afghanistan, a handover of all Afghan prisoners still in U.S. custody and strict punishment for soldiers who abuse Afghan detainees.

Karzai arrived in Boston Saturday night, the first stop in a three-city American tour that will include a meeting with Bush in Washington on Monday.

"No operations inside Afghanistan should take place without the consultation of the Afghan government," Karzai told reporters as he left Kabul Saturday, indicating that he wanted to put a stop to raids by American troops on Afghans' homes without the knowledge of his administration.

He also said he wants more access to international reconstruction funds.

Karzai's visit comes as Afghanistan and the United States are trying to forge a new strategic partnership agreement that would pave the way for a long-term U.S. military presence in the country. The agreement would give the newly elected Afghan government more control over U.S. actions, according to a State Department official and an Afghan diplomat.

The new agreement also would herald the end of what has effectively been a U.S. military occupation, since the roughly 16,700 U.S. troops in the country would remain at the invitation of an elected leader. It will not describe the U.S. military bases in the country as "permanent," a sensitive point for fiercely independent Afghans, the official and the diplomat said.

Many of the requests Karzai is expected to make this week have been included in preliminary talks on the new partnership agreement. But Karzai will request the handover of all prisoners for the first time.

Karzai is scheduled to give a commencement speech today at Boston University. Aides said that the speech will shed light on the agreement, which Karzai is expected to announce Monday at the White House with Bush. It will be Karzai's first Washington visit since his inauguration in December as his country's democratically elected leader.

The visit occurs at a tense time, after the kidnapping of one aid worker, the killing of five others, and a New York Times report that detailed how U.S. soldiers allegedly beat Afghan prisoners, two of whom died from their wounds.

The visit also came after deadly anti-American riots that the White House says were sparked by a Newsweek report — later retracted — about U.S. soldiers desecrating the Koran at Guantanamo Bay.