He expressed confidence his new government "will soon overcome the problem of terrorism."

As if to remind they are not going to make that task easy for Karzai, insurgents struck the very next day, killing at least 25 people in four separate bombings in Afghanistan.

One of those attacks took 16 lives in southwestern Farah city near the border with Iran, pointing to how far the insurgents' influence has spread in Afghanistan despite the presence of more than 100,000 NATO and U.S. forces.

"Yesterday's presidential inauguration was a day of moving forward, and today's bombing shows the insurgents' unwillingness to allow Afghan citizens to move toward a peaceful, stable and prosperous future," said U.S. Navy Capt. Jane Campbell, a spokeswoman for the multinational forces in the country.

Last Sunday and Monday, separate roadside bombs and insurgent attacks killed four U.S. troops and three Afghan soldiers in southern and eastern Afghanistan. These attacks come as U.S. President Barack Obama reportedly is close to announcing his new Afghan strategy, which will also deal with how many additional U.S. troops would be deployed.

If fighting terrorism were not enough for Karzai, he also faces a tough deadline from his Western supporters to crack down on corruption, another problem crippling his nation, or else lose their aid.

"Corruption and bribery constitute a very dangerous problem. … We consider combating this difficulty our duty," Karzai said in his inaugural address.

The question for the United States and its Western allies, who must now work with Karzai, is whether he can translate his promises into action even as he fights to gain acceptance and legitimacy among his people, some of whom accuse him of fraudulently stealing the election from opponents like Abdullah Abdullah.

Karzai on his inauguration invited "all the presidential candidates" including Abdullah "to come together to achieve the important task of national unity, and make our common home, Afghanistan, proud and prosperous."

Many Afghans, however, remain skeptical about the future.

Taimoor Shamsi, 25, one of the few who watched Karzai's inauguration on television at a restaurant, explained to The New York Times how corruption has affected various levels of officialdom.

"I've bribed the traffic department and the soldiers because otherwise they will put you in prison, even if you have done nothing," Shamsi said. "The soldier asks for money because he has to give money at the end of the day to his commander."

Kim Barker at the Council on Foreign Relations, who recently returned from a trip to Kabul, said the general agreement among Afghans seems to be: "We don't necessarily need more American troops here. What we need is more Afghan troops, and we need a better way to get those guys trained and actually working for us."

On a positive note, Karzai this week appeared to be making headway in fighting corruption.

Arrest warrants were signed for two of his ministers on corruption charges, sources told The Times of London. A prosecution source told the newspaper Karzai was required by law to suspend immunity for the accused before issuing the warrants.

Whether the ministers would be prosecuted would be seen as an early test of Karzai's commitment to crack down on corruption, the report said.

Karzai is expected to appoint his new Cabinet and provincial governors in the next few weeks, which would be another step watched closely by the international community to find out if he appoints people based on merit and integrity.

"It's a primary concern to improve accountability, transparency, and indeed to reduce corruption so that Afghans look at their government and see it as serving their interests," John Dempsey, a Kabul-based legal expert with the United States Institute of Peace, told the Christian Science Monitor.

A day prior to his inauguration, Karzai told visiting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and a group of American officials accompanying her that the United States would be a "critical partner" in his new term, The Washington Post reported.

That assurance may have earned Karzai much-needed breathing room as the Post reported that officials in the Obama administration want to develop a warmer relationship with him, realizing their earlier tough approach had not worked.

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