(AFP) – Sep 26, 2007

NEW YORK (AFP) — US President George W. Bush and his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai, touted Afghanistan's political and economic progress on Wednesday while publicly keeping mum on the resurgent Taliban militia.

"It's in our security interests that this democracy flourish because if freedom takes place in Afghanistan, it will set an example of what's possible in other parts of the broader Middle East," said Bush.

"When people see that there's hope in a part of the world that had been ravaged by war, had been terrorized by brutal extremists; when people realize there's a different way of life, they'll demand the same thing," he said.

Bush, speaking during a brief public appearance as he met with Karzai on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, did not mention renewed attacks by the Taliban, who were ousted from power by US-led forces in late 2001.

"As you know, every time we meet, I ask you, are you making progress, are more children going to school, are more health care clinics operating, are the security forces more capable of dealing with the extremists? I expect progress and you expect progress, and I appreciate the report that you have given me," said the US president.

"Afghanistan, indeed, has made progress," Karzai said, citing the liberation of the Afghan populace from the hardline Islamist Taliban regime, and the drop in infant mortality rates and an increase in food production.

"There is an endless list for which we have to be grateful to you," the Afghan leader told Bush as they met roughly six years after the US attacked the Taliban for refusing to hand over Osama bin Laden, the architect of the September 11, 2001 terrorist strikes.

The two leaders made no mention of the Taliban resurgence, the Kabul government's inability to quell skyrocketing opium production, lasting trouble with corruption, or trouble with rebuilding the strife-torn country.

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