The American presidential office announced on Thursday that US President George Bush is scheduled to separately meet both his Pakistani and Afghani counterparts, Pervez Musharraf and Hamid Karzai respectively, in order to address a series of increasingly worrisome issues related to terrorist activities in both neighboring countries, especially a growing insurgency led by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

In addition to this, both countries' mutual relations have been strained lately because of terrorist hideouts along the border that separates them.

Thus, the official announcement stipulated that Pervez Musharraf is expected to meet Bush on September 22nd, while Karzai is scheduled to see the American chief of state on September 26th. "The visit will be an opportunity for the president to congratulate President Karzai on the progress Afghanistan has made over the last five years and to reaffirm America's commitment to stability and reconstruction in Afghanistan", White House spokesman Tony Snow assessed.

He added that Bush's round of discussions with Karzai would be extremely important, given that these negotiations would also center upon measures of countering the increasing opium trade performed by Afghanistan, the need for stable governance in this war-torn country and strategies for reviving the economic department.

As far as discussions with Musharraf are concerned, these would basically follow the series of meetings the two leaders had in March, when the American president traveled to Pakistan, and would probably focus on ways through which Pakistan could prove its drive to eliminate Taliban, or terrorist, strongholds either domestically or internationally. This aspect has been extremely disputed between Pakistan and Afghanistan, given that the latter accused the former on numerous occasions that it is still committed to upholding the remnants of the Taliban regime, following its fall after the September 11th 2001 tragic terrorist events.