U.S. piles pressure on Afghan leader

By Sue Pleming and Adam Entous

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States squeezed Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday to show more backbone in fighting corruption and mismanagement as President Barack Obama weighed sending more troops and for how long.

Obama left for a week-long trip to Asia amid revelations his ambassador to Kabul, ex-military commander Karl Eikenberry, had expressed deep concerns about sending in more troops until Karzai's government improved its performance.

Senior officials said Obama had discussed Eikenberry's concerns, sent via diplomatic memos, during a war cabinet meeting at the White House where several options were laid out for the president as he deliberates his strategy for the increasingly unpopular war.

At the meeting on Wednesday, Obama called for more information on timelines for troop levels and when Afghan security forces would be competent to take over, according to several U.S. officials.

"It's important to examine not just how we're going to get folks in but how we're going to get folks out," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters.

He said a successful U.S. strategy was "most dependent on the Afghan government being a proven partner." The Obama administration, he said, was working on agreements with Karzai's government over what it needed to do.

"That's part of his (Obama's) desire to get a sense of where we are rather than committing to an open-ended conflict," Gibbs said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates also made this point during a visit to Wisconsin, telling reporters the issue was how best to show resolve while signaling to the Afghans and the American people that it was not an "open-ended commitment."