Afghan President Hamid Karzai has telephoned Washington to allay¹ concerns about a speech in which he criticised Western involvement in his country.

阿富汗总统哈米德·卡尔扎伊致电华盛顿，意在减轻美国方面对其西方国家干涉阿富汗内政的言论的顾虑。

Hamid Karzai's speech had been misunderstood, his spokesman said

Mr Karzai accused foreign officials in Kabul on Thursday of seeking to weaken him and his government. The White House said his comments were "troubling".

On Friday, he told Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Afghans were grateful for the international community's help.

A state department spokesman described the conversation as "constructive²".

"President Karzai reaffirmed his commitment to the partnership³ between our two countries and expressed his appreciation⁴ for the contributions and sacrifices of the international community," P J Crowley said.

Mrs Clinton told Mr Karzai that they should focus on common aims for stabilising Afghanistan, he added.

"They pledged to continue working together in a spirit of partnership."

'Misunderstood'

In his controversial speech, Mr Karzai admitted there had been fraud in the presidential and provincial⁵ council elections last August.

"No doubt that there was a very widespread fraud, very widespread," he told the Afghan Independent Election Commission (IEC).

"But Afghans did not do this fraud. The foreigners did this fraud," he added, singling out Peter Galbraith, the former deputy head of the UN mission, and the EU mission head Gen Phillippe Morillon for blame.

He accused them of involvement in a plot to install a puppet（傀儡，木偶） government. Both officials have denied the allegations（辩解，断言） .

On Friday, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Mr Karzai's words were "genuinely troubling", and that the US ambassador, Karl Eikenberry, had asked the president "to clarify what he meant".

During their telephone conversation, Mr Karzai told Mrs Clinton that the "the Afghan people and Afghan government were grateful for the support and sacrifice of the international community for peace in Afghanistan and the world," the president's spokesman, Waheed Omer, said.

Mr Omer also insisted the speech had been misunderstood.

"There is a difference of opinion on certain issues between Afghanistan and its international partners, but the president wanted the international community to pay attention to the concerns of the Afghan people," he added.

The BBC's Kim Ghattas in Washington says the controversy⁶（争论，辩论） has raised real concerns in Washington about how reliable a partner Mr Karzai is, with close to 90,000 US troops deployed⁷ in Afghanistan.

Senior US officials are also concerned that Mr Karzai has seemed unable to turn the page since the elections, hinting that Mrs Clinton had appealed to him to let go and move on, our correspondent says.