WRAP US President Bush meets Pres Karzai, talks to US soldiers at Bagram Airbase

(1 Mar 2006)
Kabul
1. US President George W. Bush and Afghan President Hamid Karzai walking towards podium
2. SOUNDBITE: (English) Hamid Karzai, Afghan President:
"Wonderful moment for us in Afghanistan today to have our great friend, our great supporter, a man that helped us liberate, a man that helped us rebuild, a man that helped us move towards the future, President Bush, today with us."
3. Wide of two at the podium
4. US First Lady Laura Bush standing with Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
5. SOUNDBITE: (English) George W. Bush, US President:
(Reporter's question: "Are you still confident you'll get him (Osama bin Laden)?"
"I am confident he will be brought to justice. What's happening is that we got US forces on the hunt for, not only bin Laden but anybody who plots and plans with bin Laden. There are Afghan forces on the hunt for not only bin Laden but those who plot and plan with him. We've got Pakistan forces on the hunt and part of my message to President Musharraf is that it is important that we bring these people to justice. He understands that, after all they've tried to kill him four times."
6. Bush and Karzai at news conference
7. SOUNDBITE (English) George W. Bush, US President:
"Iran must not have a nuclear weapon. The most destabilising thing that can happen in this region and the world is for Iran to develop a nuclear weapon. And so the world is speaking with one voice to the Iranians, that it's OK for you to have a civilian power, nuclear power operation. But you shall not have the means, the knowledge to develop a nuclear weapon."
8. Bush and Karzai shaking hands and walking away with Laura Bush
9. Helicopter in the sky
10. Karzai, George and Laura Bush walking up to the stage
11. Tighter shot of the Bushes with Karzai and Rice on the stage
12. Cutaway cameraman
13. Bush and Karzai cutting ribbon together
14. Bush leaving
Bagram Air Base
15. Troops waiting to hear Bush's speech
16. US troops cheer as Bush and wife, Laura, walk on stage
17. Cutaway of US troops looking at Bush
18. US troops cheer as Bush stands at podium
19. Bush waves as he walks off stage
STORYLINE
US President George W. Bush, on an unannounced visit to Afghanistan, predicted on Wednesday that Osama bin Laden would be captured despite a futile five-year hunt.
Bush pledged that bin Laden, the al-Qaida leader, and other planners of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks would be caught.
Asked about the search for bin Laden and of the president's long-ago call for getting him "dead or alive," Bush said the search for bin Laden and his associates continued.
"I'm confident he will be brought to justice," Bush said, standing alongside Afghan President Hamid Karzai outside the presidential palace.
He added: "We've got US forces on the hunt for not only bin Laden but anybody who plots and plans with bin Laden. There are Afghan forces on the hunt. We've got Pakistan forces on the hunt."
Bush spent just over four hours on the ground during his surprise visit at the onset of a South Asia trip.
It was the first presidential visit to Afghanistan since the United States routed the Taliban and began a thus far fruitless five-year search for bin Laden in the region.
There are about 19,000 US troops in Afghanistan, a number Defence Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has said would be reduced to about 16,000 by summer.
Bin Laden is believed to be hiding out somewhere along the mountainous Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
The U-S president held talks with Karzai and later presided over a ceremonial ribbon-cutting for the US Embassy.

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