KABUL, Feb 21: US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi assured President Hamid Karzai on Saturday that Washington would accelerate Afghanistan’s reconstruction as part of a new war on terror strategy, his office said.

Ms Pelosi visited the country at the head of an eight-member Congressional delegation as the United States was reviewing its strategy here, with extremist violence mounting more than seven years after the Taliban were ousted.

Mr Karzai’s office quoted Ms Pelosi as saying that the new strategy would also be focussing on accelerating Afghanistan’s reconstruction.

She said the reassessment would make the fight on terrorism more effective, according to a statement issued by the president’s office.

US President Barack Obama has already announced a troop surge to Afghanistan to confront the rising militancy, with 17,000 more US soldiers approved to add to 38,000 already in the war-hit country alongside several thousand soldiers from other nations.

Spanta to visit US: In another announcement, the Karzai government said that Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta would travel to Washington on Sunday to participate in the reassessment of the US war on terror in Afghanistan.

Once there, Mr Spanta will also hold talks with his US and Pakistani counterparts in a tripartite meeting on how to tackle terrorism in the region, a foreign ministry statement said.

“Based on Afghanistan’s request, the United States has agreed to include Afghanistan’s new views in the reassessment of the strategy of the struggle against terrorism.

“The aim of this trip is to participate and include the views of Afghans in the joint review of the strategy of the struggle against terrorism,” the statement said.

After holding talks with President Karzai last week, President Obama’s special envoy for the region Richard Holbrooke said that Washington had agreed to include Kabul’s views in its strategy review.

Karzai’s spokesman said later that tensions with the US government over Washington’s handling of its war on terror had largely been eased with Mr Holbrooke’s visit.—AFP