Bush hopes to ease Afghan/Pakistan tension

Washington: US President George W Bush will sit down with his counterparts in Afghanistan and Pakistan in a bid to ease tensions between the two countries.

Bush will sit down this evening for a working dinner at the White House with Hamid Karzai and Pervez Musharraf.

Tension has been rising between the two countries after the leaders exchanged barbed comments about how the other is dealing with the Taliban.

Musharraf and Karzai have been at odds over Afghan accusations the Taliban are operating from Pakistan.

Musharraf said on Tuesday he believed Karzai was aware of the political environment in his country.

"He is not oblivious. He knows everything. But he is purposely denying, turning a blind eye like an ostrich. He doesn't want to tell the world what is the fact for his own personal reasons," he said.

Karzai has complained that Taliban fighters are being sheltered on the Pakistani side of the border.