Washington, March 28
US President Barack Obama made a surprise visit to Afghanistan today, his first since taking office last year to meet President Hamid Karzai.

The President’s visit, which was shrouded in secrecy for security reasons, left his Camp David retreat in Maryland unannounced late Saturday and flew non-stop through the night aboard Air Force One and landed at Bagram air base just north of Kabul for a visit expected to last only hours, the CNN said.

Immediately, Obama flew on a helicopter to the Presidential Palace for a meeting with the Afghan president, who reportedly only learnt about the visit an hour beforehand.

During his brief trip, he is expected to press Karzai to do more to tackle terror, corruption and drugs trafficking, according to analysts.

The president will also meet American forces based in Afghanistan and US officials.

Obama had ordered the surge in US forces in Afghanistan by 30,000 troops in December and set a date of mid-2011 to begin their withdrawal.

Obama had gone to Kabul in 2008 as a Senator ahead of the election when he was very critical of the Afghan leadership.

According to BBC, the US president remains unhappy with the Karzai government and “Washington wants to make its frustration known”.

It quoted White House spokesman Robert Gibbs as saying that Obama wanted to get an “on the ground update” about the eight-year-old war from Gen Stanley McChrystal, commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan.

US national security adviser Gen James Jones told reporters on Air Force One that Obama hoped to help Karzai understand that “in this second term that there are certain things he has to do as the president of his country to battle the things that have not been paid attention to almost since day one”.

“That is things like... a merit-based system for appointment of key government officials, battling corruption, taking the fight to narco-traffickers, which fuels a lot of the economic engine for the insurgents,” he was quoted as saying. According to reports, the two leaders would also discuss reconciliation of rival factions in Afghanistan, as US and NATO forces escalate efforts to beat the Taliban. — PTI