By IRNA,
London : British Prime Minister David Cameron started his first visit to the US Monday since taking office with the faltering Afghan war expected to be at the top of his talks agenda with President Barack Obama.
Other priority issues reportedly will also include the deadlock over Iran’s nuclear program, the uncertain world economy and disputes over the UK release of the only person to be convicted for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and BP’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Cameron’s two-day visit coincided with the Kabul conference, with both the UK and US seeking an early exit strategy for the ill-fated nine-year war in Afghanistan that marked the launch of the so-called ‘war on terror.’
On Sunday, Defence Secretary Liam Fox restated a target for the handover of security control to Afghan forces by 2014, a year before the UK’s next scheduled elections.
“It has always been our aim to be successful in the mission, and the mission has always said that the Afghan national security forces would be able to deal with their own security by 2014,” Fox told the BBC as another four British troops were killed over the weekend.
Cameron spent time talking with Obama on the sidelines of the recent G8 and G20 summits in Canada with seemingly no big divisions between the two leaders in being eager to get out of Afghanistan as soon as possible.
“There is mutual despair at the performance of President Karzai, but no clear alternative save boosting the funding of non-corrupt regional governors and improving education, especially girls’ education, as a way of creating an internal counterweight to the Taliban,” the Guardian newspaper suggested.
In briefings before the trip, Cameron’s spokesman tried to play down the two current controversies in the so-called special relationship – the BP oil disaster and the Lockerbie bomber’s release.
The prime minister, who is also meeting congressional leaders, was expected to repeat that the UK government could not accept responsibility for the controversial release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.
His release last year was technically made on humanitarian grounds by the devolved Scottish government, which was opposed by Cameron, but its timing has been linked with BP negotiating oil interests in Libya.