WASHINGTON, Sept 5: US President George Bush was relieved to hear that his key Afghan ally, President Hamid Karzai, was not hurt in an assassination attempt, a White House spokesman said on Thursday.

“The president was informed and expressed his relief that President Karzai was unhurt,” a White House spokesman Sean McCormack told journalists.

“He looks forward to meeting President Karzai when he comes to New York next week” to attend the special session of the UN General Assembly in New York, McCormack said.

Bush was informed of the attack by an aide on the tarmac in Louisville, Kentucky, where he was on a fund-raising swing for the Republican party.

US officials said the attempt on Karzai and the bomb explosion in Kabul have justified Washington’s decision to provide American bodyguards to the Afghan president.

Observers in Washington say that the two incidents would also strengthen Karzai’s request for expanding the International Security Assistance Force, currently responsible for Kabul’s security.

US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said earlier in the day that the United States would support the move for expanding ISAF’s responsibilities provided other countries contribute troops for the force.

Addressing US policy-makers and academics at Washington’s Brookings Institute, Wolfowitz said the United States was willing to reconsider its earlier refusal to expand ISAF because it believes that the force could play a significant role in bringing peace to Afghanistan.

“We are also considering the possibility that ISAF could play a role outside Kabul if it could be enlarged,” Wolfowitz added.

Expanding the peacekeeping force would benefit Afghanistan by helping the Afghan National Army and the country’s fledgling police and border security forces, Wolfowitz said.

If the Turkish-led peacekeeping force is to be expanded, other countries have to “provide the leadership and resources necessary to make it happen”, Wolfowitz said.

Later addressing a rally in Louisville, Bush said Washington was committed to staying in Afghanistan. “We’re not leaving ... we’re not leaving because there are still al Qaeda and their buddies roaming around in that region.”

STATE DEPT: Jo-Anne Prokopowicz, a State Department press official, said: “According to information available to us, this evening in Kandahar the car carrying President Karzai was attacked. We are pleased that President Karzai was not injured.”