KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, on a visit to Kabul Wednesday, expressed satisfaction with the Afghan president but concerns over security and drugs.
President Hamid Karzai said Rumsfeld's many recent visits to Afghanistan were themselves proof of Afghanistan's improvements after over two decades of war.
Rumsfeld, on a tour amid tight security, earlier held talks with his Afghan counterpart, Mohammad Qasim Fahim.
The visit came amid surging militancy in the south, southeast and eastern parts of the country as well as an emerging rift between the U.S.-backed Karzai and former Mujahideen leaders headed by the powerful defense minister Fahim.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday in Kabul, Rumsfeld voiced concern over Afghanistan's drug cultivation problem, the Voice of America reported.
Both the U.S. and Afghan governments have promised increased operations to fight the Afghan drug trade, said to account for three-quarters of the world's opium poppy cultivation.
Rumsfeld praised Afghanistan's democratic development, including the country's first post-war presidential and parliamentary elections, slated respectively for October and April.
U.S. officials have not endorsed any of the 18 presidential candidates, but Karzai is generally seen as closest to the United States.
