WASHINGTON, Jan 27: Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai arrived here on Sunday on his first official visit to the United States to discuss the future of his war-scarred country.

Karzai is to meet with members of the Afghan community here on Sunday before a formal meeting with President George W. Bush on Monday.

Speaking on Radio Kabul before his departure late on Saturday, Karzai said peace and security were “most essential” for Afghanistan and the 4.5 billion dollars in aid pledged by international donors must be used “judiciously”.

Before leaving for the US, Mr Karzai described the visit as essentially “a sentimental trip”.

“I’m coming to the US to go to New York to take flowers to the Twin Towers and tell the American people that we have tremendous sympathy for them,” Karzai told US magazine Newsweek before leaving Afghanistan.

“The US has already helped us by announcing $296 million of help to Afghanistan, so basically this is a sentimental trip.”

Mr Karzai was due to meet with President George W. Bush on Monday and is expected on Wednesday in New York, where he is also scheduled to address a session of the United Nations Security Council.

Mr Karzai indicated that he would seek backing in the US for an extension of the international security presence in Afghanistan beyond Kabul: “All the delegations I’ve received from the countryside have asked me to send the security force all over the country, and I don’t see why not,” he told the magazine.

In the interview, he also backed the trial of Al Qaeda suspects: “I would like the

TV cameras to show their faces to the American and the Afghan people, so that our people and yours will get a sense that justice is being done.”—AFP/dpa