KABUL, 9 May 2005 — Hundreds of tribal leaders yesterday backed President Hamid Karzai’s plan for a “strategic partnership” with the United States, a government spokesman said, a pact which could cement a long-term US military presence in Central Asia. Most Afghans support Karzai’s bid to have long-term security ties with the United States, the spokesman said after a gathering of more than 1,000 tribal chiefs and regional leaders yesterday.

The assembly of Afghan tribal chiefs, elders and representatives of ethnic groups and regions was held at the heavily fortified presidential palace and was only open to a handful of state media representatives. The gathering of delegates of a traditional assembly known as a Loya Jirga, which endorsed a constitution in early 2004, is the closest thing Afghanistan has to a Parliament until a national assembly is formed after a Sept. 18 election.

The question of whether US forces should be given permanent bases in Afghanistan has sparked debate in a country with a long history of resisting foreign intervention and in a region where big powers have long competed for influence. Afghanistan’s relationship with the United States was one of the main issues Karzai raised with the assembly of national representatives he summoned for talks yesterday.

“Our findings from today’s discussions were that people, on the whole, (are) very positive about this, and I think that people are thinking, by and large, exactly the same line as we had expected,” Karzai’s spokesman Jawed Ludin told a news conference after the assembly. Karzai would discuss Afghanistan’s strategic relations with the United States when he meets President George W. Bush on a US visit this month, Ludin said.

The possibility of permanent bases was raised in February when US Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, said during an Afghan visit they would be in the interests of US and regional security. Karzai had appeared to favor permanent bases, and his defense minister said Afghanistan was eager for “enduring arrangements” with the United States.

But some opposition to the suggestion has been raised in newspaper commentaries and among the public, and Karzai has avoided giving a clear answer on the question, saying he would ask Bush for long-term security protection for Afghanistan. The United States says it wants to prevent Afghanistan becoming a “breeding ground for terrorists” and the country also has strategic significance given its border with Iran and its proximity to Russia and China.

Ludin said the president did not need the approval of Parliament to forge an agreement with any other country. “Whatever the president deems necessary, will be acted that way,” he said. A “long-term strategic partnership” with the United States would cover military, political and economic ties, and was needed until Afghanistan could stand on its feet, Ludin said.

US forces and Afghan opposition troops overthrew the Taleban in late 2001. The United States commands a foreign force of about 18,300, most of them American, fighting Taleban insurgents and hunting Taleban and Al-Qaeda leaders, including Osama Bin Laden.

Many Afghans are happy to see US troops providing security until their own army can, but many have doubts about permanent bases.

Meanwhile, the Afghan National Army and US soldiers killed an estimated 20 insurgents during a prolonged firefight at an isolated compound in Afghanistan’s southern province of Kandahar, the US military said yesterday in a statement. Nine ANA soldiers were killed and four five others including a US soldier were lightly wounded, the statement said. At least five suspected insurgent members are in coalition custody, the statement said.

A Myanmar engineer working for the United Nations was among three people killed in a weekend bombing at an Internet cafe in Kabul, the Interior Ministry said yesterday, correcting an earlier statement that the dead man was from the Philippines. The man was identified by his passport and a UN card found in his pocket, Interior Ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal told AFP.

“He was from Burma not from the Philippines. He was identified from his passport and UN card,” Mashal said. The explosion occurred at about 6:00 p.m. and destroyed the cafe in the Shar-e-Nao district. Blood was visible on the computers. A body blown to pieces lay by the toilet door.

“Three people were killed, including the suicide bomber, and six wounded,” International Security Assistance Force spokesman Richard Hesser told AFP earlier. Police said they were still investigating whether or not it was a suicide attack. “It was a terrorist act but we haven’t yet determined whether it was caused by a homemade bomb or a suicide attack,” city police chief Mohammad Akram Khakrizwal said earlier.

Mashal said authorities “strongly believe that it was the result of a suicide attack.” It was the first explosion in Kabul since April 24 when a car bomb detonated in a residential neighborhood, without causing any casualties. Taleban militants claimed responsibility for that incident. The last suicide bombing in Kabul occurred on Oct. 23 when an American tourist and an Afghan girl were killed.