The latest batch of US diplomatic correspondence obtained by the WikiLeaks website also said that the United States worried about Iran's involvement in Afghanistan including accounts Tehran is supporting Taliban insurgents.

One secret US cable said that more than 190 million dollars left Kabul's airport for Dubai between July and September, the time of Karzai's re-election that triggered an international outcry over allegations of fraud.

While much of the cash may come from Afghans worried about stability, one cable said that Ahmad Zia Massoud -- a first vice president until last year and brother of slain anti-Taliban commander Ahmad Shah Massoud -- was caught entering the United Arab Emirates carrying 52 million dollars.

The New York Times, which reprinted the cable, said Massoud denied any wrongdoing in an interview with the newspaper, which reported however that a Rolls-Royce was recently spotted outside his luxury house in Dubai.

US Ambassador Karl Eikenberry is quoted in cables as voicing concern at the extent of corruption in Afghanistan and the mindset of Karzai, who would ask conspiracy theories about the United States weakening him or dividing Pakistan.

"Two contrasting portraits emerge. The first is of a paranoid and weak individual unfamiliar with the basics of nation building and overly self-conscious that his time in the spotlight of glowing reviews from the international community has passed," Eikenberry said in a cable shortly before the election.

"The other is that of an ever-shrewd politician who sees himself as a nationalist hero who can save the country from being divided" by the United States and rivals' agenda, Eikenberry said.

In another cable, Eikenberry rued how difficult it was to "fight corruption and connect the people to their government, when the key government officials are themselves corrupt."

He made the remark after meeting with the president's brother Ahmad Wali Karzai, a power broker in the southern city of Kandahar who was portrayed in other leaked cables as a corrupt drugs baron.

earlier related report
Clinton visits Kyrgyzstan for talks with president
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (AFP) Dec 2, 2010 - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Bishkek Thursday for a brief visit to the volatile Central Asian state that hosts a key US air base used to ferry troops to Afghanistan.

Clinton was due to meet President Roza Otunbayeva, then to take part in a television broadcast, before flying to Uzbekistan in the afternoon.

Her visit to Bishkek came as three of the country's political movements agreed to form a coalition government, almost two months after parliamentary elections whose results were long delayed.

Clinton praised the country for forming a coalition based on democratic elections at a news conference.

She thanked Kyrgyzstan for continuing to host the Manas air base and said it would benefit from the deployment of US troops in Afghanistan.

"Kyrgyzstan will be more secure if we can help the Afghan people build a peaceful, stable country," she said.

Several of the parties that gained most votes in the polls have campaigned for the closure of Manas, which is used to transfer most of the US troops to Afghanistan and to refuel military planes.

The US pays 60 million dollars per year to rent the base, plus 110 million dollars in economic aid to the impoverished ex-Soviet state.

Otunbayeva said the future of the airbase would be decided by the incoming government, but stressed its importance in battling militants in Afghanistan.

"I would like to underline the particular role of the Manas airbase in fighting terrorism and the contribution of Kyrgyzstan," she said, voicing fears of violence spreading from Afghanistan into its northern neighbour.

Pressed on a controversy over who supplies fuel to the airbase, Clinton said the United States would be willing to help found a Kyrgz company that could take on the lucractive contract.

Some 80 people were killed in a violent uprising this spring that toppled the previous president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev. Clashes between the ethnic Kyrgyz majority and the Uzbek minority in the south in June left hundreds dead.

The US-based human rights organisation Human Rights Watch on Thursday called for Clinton to demand a "thorough and impartial investigation" into both outbreaks of violence.

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