WASHINGTON: The Washington visit of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari was billed as a trilateral summit to advance the Obama administration's strategy for battling the region's Islamist extremists.

"The fundamental truth," said President Barack Obama, during his White House meeting Wednesday with the two leaders, is "the security of Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States are linked."

The rare trilateral meeting underscored Obama's view that the rising instability in Pakistan and Afghanistan is a single problem bound by geography, weak central governments and a cross-border insurgency.

In his remarks, Obama warned that "there will be more violence and there will be setbacks," but promised that US commitment to the region "will not waiver."

Obama met "with two presidents who are broadly disliked and distrusted both in their own counties and in Washington," noted the lead editorial in the Washington Post. "... and who nevertheless play a central role in policies vital to U.S. national security...

"Karzai, the toast of the town during his first official visit here seven years ago, has alienated many Afghans because of his ineffectiveness and tolerance of corruption..." while Zardari "has frittered away authority in feuds with other civilian political leaders even as Pakistan's Islamic extremists have grown in strength. Many Pakistanis accuse him of being too close to the United States," wrote the Post.

The New York Times followed suit, saying: "American officials don't have much confidence in either leader - a fact they haven't tired to conceal." But it went on to say that: "If there is any hope of defeating the Taliban. Mr. Obama will have to find a way to work with both men - and find the right mixture of support and blunt pressure to get them to do what is necessary to save their countries," and called on Congress "to act quick on two aid packages" for the countries.

Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with the men Wednesday and described their three-way talks as focusing not just on military and diplomatic moves, but also on attempts to shore up the pillars of society in Afghanistan and Pakistan - by "developing alternatives to the drug trade" in Afghanistan as Obama put it, alluding to the traditional poppy-and-opium trade, and by fostering grass-roots democracy in both countries.

Obama and Clinton also announced that Afghanistan and Pakistan agreed Wednesday to conclude by the end of the year a trade pact that has been under discussion for more than four decades, one meant to increase commerce between the countries, which have long regarded each other with mutual suspicion.

US administration officials went into global-crisis mode this week as Zardari joined his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai, in their meeting with Obama, which followed Israeli President Shimon Peres's meeting with Obama on Tuesday.

Vice President Joe Biden spoke to the leading pro-Israel lobby, AIPAC, the American Israeli Political Action Committee on Wednesday, telling them that Israel must support a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"Israel has to work for a two state-solution. You're not going to like my saying this, but not build more settlements, dismantle existing outposts and allow Palestinians freedom of movement ... and access to economic opportunity," Biden said.

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Robert Gates was recently in Saudi Arabia trying to get that country's help for Pakistan to fight off the insurgents, and Richard Holbrooke, Obama's troubleshooter for Afghanistan and Pakistan, spoke to the House Foreign Affairs Committee about the crisis.

Clinton, meanwhile, began the day by holding an unscheduled early meeting early with Zardari, at his hotel, the Willard. Clinton was a close friend with Benazir Bhutto, Zardari's wife and former prime minister who was killed in December 2007 while campaigning.

She told reporters that the visit was business and "personal," saying that she got to meet Zardari's son, Bilal Bhutto Zardari, who is 20, for the first time in 10 years. She later met with both leaders in a larger group at the State Department.

Zardari may be on good terms with Clinton, but he still has to work to convince Congress of his government's ability to beat back the Taliban insurgency. A 90-minuted meeting with the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday did not help his cause: members said they were confused and disappointed by Zardari's presentation.

"I had a sense of what they are doing today. I did not have a sense of what they plan to do tomorrow," said Howard Berman, D-California, and the committee's chair.

Congress is considering an $83 billion supplemental war-spending request that includes billions of dollars in military and development aid for the two governments.

It's now up to Karzai and Zardari to help out. One of their objectives is to persuade US lawmakers worried about corruption and inept governance in Afghanistan - and about infiltrated security forces, shadowy relations with extremists, and vulnerable nuclear materials - that the new money is warranted and will be put to good use.