Australian PM meets Karzai in Afghanistan

'We are as determined as you are to see this mission through'

AUSTRALIA: Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has visited Afghanistan, her office said Monday, days after three of her nation's troops were shot dead by a rogue Afghan soldier who fired on a parade.

Gillard made the unannounced stopover in the war-torn Central Asian nation, where she met President Hamid Karzai in Kabul, on her way back from the G20 leaders' meeting in Cannes, France. Addressing soldiers on Sunday in the restive southern province of Uruzgan, where most of Australia's 1,550 troops are stationed, Gillard acknowledged the loss of three of their colle

agues on October 29.

Seven other soldiers were wounded in the incident, which was Australia's worst since three commandos were killed in a helicopter crash in 2010.

"When I started planning this trip I didn't realise that it would be in the shadow of very deep sadness," Gillard said in comments quoted in The Australian newspaper. "I know the way you feel that sense of loss is with a spirit of determination about your mission."

But she said Canberra was determined to continue its engagement in Afghanistan, where so far 32 Australian soldiers have been killed.

AFP