CAMP DAVID, Md. - US President Bush said Monday the US and Pakistan, if armed with good intelligence, can track and kill al-Qaida leaders. He stopped short of saying whether he would ask the Pakistani president before dispatching US troops into that nation.

US President Bush, left, accompanied by Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai, right, speaks during their joint press conference, Monday, Aug. 6, 2007, at Camp David, Md. [AP]

While Bush hails Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf as a trusted ally against terrorism, Pakistan has objected to the US taking any unilateral action within its borders.

Bush also said he thinks Iran is playing a destabilizing role in neighboring Afghanistan where the Taliban have staged a comeback.

"I would be very cautious about whether or not the Iranian influence in Afghanistan is a positive force," Bush said at the Camp David presidential retreat after a two-day meeting with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai.

Though Karzai says Iran is playing a helpful role in his country, he admits security has deteriorated there during the past two years. Along with other nations' forces, more than 23,500 US troops are fighting against the Taliban, who regrouped after a US-led force toppled their government in 2001.

Democrats have accused the Bush administration of taking its eye off Afghanistan to focus on Iraq.

Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks is believed to be hiding in the rugged tribal area of Pakistan along its border with Afghanistan.

"We're in constant communications with the Pakistan government," Bush said, standing alongside Karzai at a news conference at the secluded retreat.

"It's in their interest that foreign fighters be brought to justice. After all, these are the same ones who were plotting to kill President Musharraf. We share a concern. And I'm confident, with real actionable intelligence, we will get the job done."

Pakistani officials have grown increasingly annoyed at recent claims from Washington and US presidential candidates that al-Qaida has been allowed to regroup in the tribal area.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has said that he would use military force in Pakistan if necessary to root out terrorists. Obama spokesman Bill Burton expanded on the candidate's remark on Monday, saying "Senator Obama believes that if we have the chance to destroy the leadership of al-Qaida, as we reportedly did in 2005, we must take it. It makes no sense to wait for the next attack."

In Islamabad on Monday, Pakistan's foreign minister spokesman Tasnim Aslam said there are no al-Qaida or Taliban safe havens in its territory. "Our position is that if there are any terrorist elements hiding in our tribal areas it is for the security forces of Pakistan to take action against these elements," he said.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other top administration officials joined Bush at the wooded retreat for his meeting with Karzai, who plans to sit down with Musharraf on Aug. 9. The two leaders talked privately in a cabin for about an hour before attending a larger meeting of the delegations. Security and a record poppy crop in Afghanistan topped the agenda.

Karzai said strides had been made in reducing infant mortality, battling corruption and stemming the cultivation of poppies used in making heroin. Karzai said the Taliban, who profit from the drug crop, are killing innocents but are not a threat to the government, which has only spotty control outside Kabul.

"They are not posing any threat to the institutions of Afghanistan, or to the buildup of institutions of Afghanistan," Karzai said. "It's a force that's defeated. It's a force that is frustrated. It's a force that is acting in cowardice by killing children going to school."

While admitting that the fight was not over in Afghanistan, Bush, too, highlighted progress the nation has made in rebuilding with the help of more than $23 billion in US aid since 2001.

"I remember talking a lot about how the Taliban prevented young girls from going to school in Afghanistan," Bush said. "American citizens recoil with horror to think about a government that would deny a young child the opportunity to have the basics necessary to succeed in life. Today there are nearly 5 million students going to school in Afghanistan, a third of whom are girls."

War-weary Afghans don't want to see the Taliban back in power, yet they are angry about the number of Afghan civilians who have gotten caught in the crossfire. Bush said he understands their sorrow, but blamed the Taliban for using civilians as "human shields." Karzai said he was happy about the conversation he had with Bush about curbing civilian casualties, but did not elaborate.