KABUL, Feb 14: President Barack Obama’s envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan met President Hamid Karzai on Saturday amid a downturn in US-Afghan relations.

Mr Karzai says he still has not spoken with Mr Obama almost a month after his inauguration, a sign the Afghan president no longer enjoys the favoured status he had under former president George W. Bush.

“There is tension between us and the US government on issues of civilian casualties, arrests of Afghans, nightly raids on homes and the casualties they cause,” Mr Karzai told Al Jazeera television in an interview on Friday.

Richard Holbrooke met Mr Karzai at the heavily guarded presidential palace in central Kabul on Saturday. Neither Mr Holbrooke nor Mr Karzai made any public statements.

Mr Holbrooke earlier met Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta, whose spokesman said the US envoy reaffirmed the US commitment to the anti-terrorism fight, reconstruction projects and the training of Afghan forces. Mr Holbrooke’s fact-finding trip began on Thursday.

Mr Karzai in recent weeks has publicly pressed the US to use Afghan troops on night raids in order to prevent civilian casualties.

His public criticism of the raids and the civilian deaths caused by US troops has added to recent tensions in the US-Afghan relationship.

The US military and Afghan Defence Ministry announced on Thursday that Afghan officials and troops would take greater part in US missions, particularly night raids.—Agencies