Ambassador urges Obama NOT to send more troops

The senior American commander in Afghanistan, Gen Stanley McChrystal, who is still waiting for President Obama's decision on his request for 40,000 extra troops, is reported to be "fuming" over the leaked messages to the White House from the US ambassador in Kabul, in which the envoy argues against any more combat troops being sent to the war zone.

The ambassador, Karl Eikenberry, is said to have expressed deep reservations about President Hamid Karzai's erratic behaviour and his apparent unwillingness to do anything about the corruption in his government, despite Allied forces risking their lives to ensure his recent election.

The ambassador's intervention comes after weeks of discussion - some would say dithering - at the White House over McChrystal's request.

Earlier this week, CBS reported that the White House had made up its mind to send extra troops. But a spokesman immediately refuted the report, leading to speculation that senior Pentagon officials had leaked the news to CBS in an effort to box Obama in.

The question now is who leaked Eikenberry's messages to the White House given that Eikenberry's intervention could be just the excuse Obama needs to refuse McChrystal's request at a time when more and more American people want the war to end.

Eikenberry's views carry more weight than an average ambassador's: he is a former lieutenant-general in the US Army and served as the senior American commander in Afghanistan between 2005 and 2007.

It is thought that both he and Obama were particularly irritated by an interview this week in which Karzai said that the West had little interest in Afghanistan and that its troops are there only for self-serving reasons.