Afghan president's message to US troops: 'Thank you'

CAMP DAVID: Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Monday expressed deep gratitude to US troops for their sacrifices in a visit that Washington hopes will mark a new chapter in relations with Kabul after years of friction.

Speaking to soldiers and top US officials at a ceremony at the Pentagon, Ghani said "thank you" several times, saying his country will always appreciate the contributions of the more than 850,000 troops who have deployed to Afghanistan since the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Ghani, who left the Pentagon for wide-ranging talks at the presidential retreat of Camp David with Secretary of State John Kerry and other top officials, promised that his government would not "be a burden" and would put its "house in order."

Obama will host Ghani on Tuesday at the White House and is expected to announce plans to slow down the pace of a scheduled withdrawal of the 10,000-strong US force in Afghanistan, officials said.

The move is partly a result of Ghani taking office last year, as US officials see him as a breath of fresh air compared with his predecessor Hamid Karzai, who often clashed with Washington and castigated US military and diplomatic efforts.

The Obama administration has made it no secret that it prefers Ghani to the mercurial Karzai.

The US commander in Afghanistan, General John Campbell, has described the difference between Ghani and Karzai as "night and day."

The event in the Pentagon's courtyard, in which Ghani directly addressed the widow of a slain US general, offered a stark contrast to the Karzai era.

The Afghan president said he came "to say thank you on behalf of a grateful nation to people in this building and the larger US community for sacrificing continuously since September 11 to bring us freedom and hope."

After thanking US troops, diplomats and even the "American taxpayer," Ghani pledged that "we are not going to be a burden."

"We do not now ask what the United States can do for us," he said, turning around a famous phrase by former president John F. Kennedy.

"We want to say what Afghanistan will do for itself and for the world. And that means we are going to put our house in order."

For most of the past 14 years, while US blood has spilled in the deserts of southern Afghanistan and the craggy mountain passes in the country's east, Washington has been fighting a parallel battle with Kabul's leaders.

There was relief when Ghani -- a 15-year World Bank veteran who arrived in the United States on Sunday -- and chief executive Abdullah Abdullah took office in 2014 despite seemingly interminable power sharing negotiations.

US officials say Ghani appears willing to carry out security and economic reforms that will put Afghanistan on a path to eventual self-reliance, one that does not require endless US funding and indefinite large-scale troop deployments.

That sits well with Obama, who has promised to pull out troops from Afghanistan by 2017, when he leaves office.

The talks at Camp David will focus on security, the economy and reconciliation with the Taliban. Kerry will be joined by Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, along with military and intelligence officials.

On Tuesday, before his meeting with Obama, Ghani will head to Arlington National Cemetery where many of the troops killed in Afghanistan are buried.

But amid the harmonious rhetoric, there are points of contention between Ghani and Obama.

The Afghan president is pressing for a long-term US commitment for financial aid. And he has made clear he wants Obama to slow the pace of the troop drawdown, citing the threat of the Islamic State group trying to establish a foothold in Afghanistan.

The United States had planned to scale back its military footprint from 10,000 troops to 5,500 by December, but that number is likely to be revised, officials said.

However, the goal of having the whole combat force out by 2017 has not changed, US officials said.

Ghani will appeal to Obama for continued financial backing for Afghanistan to give time for the country's economy to stand on its own, officials in Kabul said.

A senior Afghan official said: "The meetings in the US will focus on another key point: the financial support to Afghanistan, which has been secured until 2017, but needs to be confirmed for the following five years.