**David Cameron has held a meeting with the Afghan President Hamid Karzai, his first with a foreign leader since becoming prime minister.**Officials said the PM reaffirmed the UK’s commitment to building a stable future in Afghanistan.
The talks were held in Chequers, the prime minister’s country residence.
Mr Karzai stopped over in the UK on his way back from Washington, where he discussed issues with US President Barack Obama.
Downing Street said President Karzai’s stopover was “an opportunity for early discussions” following on from previous meetings when Mr Cameron was leader of the opposition.
Officials also said it was President Karzai who had requested the meeting with the new prime minister.
It is a weekend of firsts for Mr Cameron - it is his first meeting with a foreign leader and the first time he will have used the Buckinghamshire residence.
‘Crucial year’
BBC diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall said President Karzai would be keen to establish for himself what relations with the new British leader and new coalition government might be.
“His relations with the previous Labour government were on occasion strained. And in earlier interviews David Cameron’s enthusiasm for President Karzai has sometimes been less than fulsome,” she said.
“But in the last few days Mr Cameron has already been swift to reaffirm Britain’s commitment to the mission to build a secure and stable future for Afghanistan.”
Afghanistan was top of the agenda on Friday when Foreign Secretary William Hague met his US counterpart Hillary Clinton in Washington.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme it was going to be a “crucial year” for Afghanistan.
“Progress is being made but now we have to see an effective political process as well,” he said.
“And that’s what the United States has been working so hard on this week and that’s where our efforts in our British relations with President Karzai and his government will come in over the coming weeks in a strongly co-ordinated way.”
Britain has about 9,000 troops deployed in Afghanistan, most of them on the frontline in Helmand province.This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
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