ON VISIT TO U.S., AFGHAN LEADER DEFENDS OPIUM FIGHT

WASHINGTON -- President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan on Sunday rejected
criticism of his efforts against opium poppy growers, saying the government
had worked hard to eradicate poppy fields. He blamed Western countries for
a lack of support.

The criticism of him came in a State Department memorandum reported in The
New York Times on Sunday. The memorandum attributed the lagging poppy
eradication effort to a reluctance on the part of Mr. Karzai and others in
the Kabul government to take on powerful warlords in Kandahar Province and
elsewhere.

But Mr. Karzai said the criticism was part of an effort to shift blame from
the United States, Britain and other countries that have failed to deliver
economic aid.

"We are going to have probably all over the country at least 30 percent
poppies reduced," Mr. Karzai said from Boston, in an interview on "Late
Edition with Wolf Blitzer" on CNN. "So we have done our job. The Afghan
people have done their job. Now the international community must come and
provide alternative livelihood to the Afghan people, which they have not
done so far."

"Let us stop this blame game," he added.

The Afghan leader spoke on the first day of his visit in the United States
for a meeting with President Bush on Monday and talks with Congressional
leaders later this week.

In general, the Bush administration has proclaimed Afghanistan a success
story, while also acknowledging that warfare persists in some parts of the
country.

The State Department memorandum, which was sent by the American Embassy in
Kabul, said Mr. Karzai had failed to exercise "strong leadership" by taking
on local leaders involved in opium poppy production.

Afghanistan is the world's biggest source of heroin and opium, drug experts
say.

Many analysts say that the problem of opium production in uncontrolled
parts of Afghanistan reflects the larger problems faced by Mr. Karzai's
government in extending its power beyond Kabul. Parliamentary elections,
due this year, have been postponed several times because of violence and
lack of preparations.

The Taliban, the Islamic fundamentalist party that controlled Afghanistan
and was allied with Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, was ousted by the United
States three and a half years ago. But the group is still considered a
major player in large parts of the country, particularly in the mountainous
eastern region that borders Pakistan.

On a separate matter, relating to articles in The Times that have detailed
the deaths of two Afghan men in a United States military prison in Bagram
in late 2002, Mr. Karzai said the reports had reinforced Afghanistan's
determination to take over the detention of Afghan citizens.

Mr. Karzai had made similar statements before leaving Kabul, and he is
expected to raise the matter in his meeting with Mr. Bush. A State
Department official, who did not want to be identified because he said he
did not want to get into a dispute with Mr. Karzai on the eve of his visit,
said that, in fact, Afghanistan had begun slowly taking over custody of
Afghan prisoners in Afghanistan.

Mr. Karzai said he would press the United States not only to turn over
Afghan prisoners but also to do more to consult with Afghan authorities
before raiding homes and villages to look for insurgents.

It made sense, he said, for the United States to be in charge of prisoners
and military actions after the ouster of the Taliban. "Now we are in a
different phase of this struggle," Mr. Karzai added. "The Afghan people now
feel that they own that country, Afghanistan, that we are owners of that
country."

Going into people's homes by the military, he said, "must not be done
without the permission of the Afghan government."

Mr. Karzai also used television appearances on Sunday to criticize Newsweek
magazine for its article published earlier this month, which was retracted,
that said a military inquiry would report that a copy of the Koran had been
flushed down a toilet at the American prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
But Mr. Karzai said the riots that ensued in Afghanistan, in which at least
17 people were killed, were caused by protesters with a longstanding
anti-American agenda.

"Some of the incidents, the looting of the buildings, the burning of
buildings that was done by people who were protesting the documents - that
was done by gangs who were against Afghanistan," Mr. Karzai said in an
interview on Fox News. On CNN, he said the rioters were people who wanted
to split the Afghan-American alliance.