Afghan president welcomes US strategy review

"It is exactly what the Afghan people were hoping for," Karzai said of the review. "The plan to include Iran in a regional role ... it's a positive thing and we hope to use this opportunity in a positive way for the good of Afghanistan," he told a news conference.

US President Barack Obama unveiled a new war strategy for Afghanistan on Friday. The strategy's key goal is to crush al Qaeda militants in Afghanistan and in Pakistan who he said were plotting new attacks on the United States. "We back this and we will be working very, very closely with the U.S. government to prepare for and to work on implementing everything laid out in this strategy," Karzai said.

The new strategy comes with violence in Afghanistan at its highest level since US-led forces ousted the Taliban in 2001 for sheltering al Qaeda leaders behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. The insurgents, often operating from safe havens in the border regions of Pakistan, have escalated their attacks, with violence spreading from the south and east to the outskirts of the capital, Kabul.