Britain"s prime minister worked Sunday to smooth relations with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and renew Britain"s commitment to the war despite its unpopularity back home, AP quoted him as saying. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he would ship helicopters, equipment and roadside bomb surveillance devices along with 500 reinforcements he recently announced will join 9,500 British troops deployed mostly in southern Afghanistan. Regions of Afghanistan are at the «epicenter» of the global terrorist threat, Brown said, defending his decision to send more British forces to war. «We have good cooperation and we"re hoping, with the new (Afghan) Cabinet, to work on fighting corruption and take a step toward improving security in Afghanistan,» Brown said. «Our plan is to weaken the Taliban and to strengthen the Afghan authorities.» Brown spent Saturday night at an airfield in Kandahar _ the first time he has stayed overnight in either Afghanistan or Iraq. For security reasons, his pre-holiday visit was not officially announced until Sunday.
