WASHINGTON — President Obama and the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan, setting aside months of friction, committed themselves again Wednesday to their faltering joint effort against Taliban and Al Qaeda extremists.
After a day of talks, Obama said he was satisfied that the leaders "fully appreciate the seriousness of the threats we face and have reaffirmed their commitment to confronting it."
Obama also moved to quell any doubts about U.S. support for the two beleaguered presidents, Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan and Hamid Karzai of neighboring Afghanistan, saying Washington's backing would not waver.
However, the first round of the two-day summit appeared to leave the Obama administration largely where it began: confronting deteriorating situations in two strategically vital countries where it must rely on leaders who have fallen markedly short of U.S. hopes.
Obama did not extract new pledges from Pakistan to deploy more troops against the Islamic militants, White House officials said, describing the private sessions on condition of anonymity.
Nor did he raise the politically sensitive issue of shifting Pakistani troops from the border with India, where most of them are massed, to the western frontier with Afghanistan, as the U.S. would prefer, the officials said.
Nevertheless, the Afghan and Pakistani leaders voiced their commitment to a three-nation effort, even signaling their endorsement of a written plan for carrying it out, the White House officials said, without elaborating.
The summit was convened to refocus an effort that has been thrown off course by the alarming recent gains of Taliban and Al Qaeda militants, who have moved from sanctuaries in Pakistan's western border regions to more populous areas. The U.S. has been pressuring Pakistan to do more to rein in the militants.
Meanwhile, intensified fighting in Afghanistan has sharpened the differences between the United States and Karzai.
In a reminder of the sobering difficulties, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told the two leaders earlier Wednesday that the United States "deeply regrets" civilian deaths caused by military action. She addressed the issue two days after a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan's Farah province reportedly killed dozens of civilians, including women and children.
Obama, later standing between Karzai and Zardari, said the administration would "make every effort" to avoid civilian deaths, which have fueled anti-American sentiment in both countries.
