WASHINGTON (PAN): Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Thursday thanked Afghan President Hamid Karzai for his hospitality during his latest stay in Kabul this week and termed him as a great host.

Kerry, who was in Afghanistan for several days trying to resolve the election imbroglio, and was successful in convincing Karzai to agree to the run-off, was all in praise for the Afghan President as he talked to the White House Correspondents following his meeting with the US President, Barack Obama.

I have to tell you, I am grateful to President Karzai for really a remarkable series of meetings and great hospitality. I think we ate lunch or dinner three times together, with large groups, and then we broke into smaller groups, Kerry said.

I spent many hours with him, one-on-one, and then we had other sessions where we had larger groups of people present. There were times when he was prepared to say this isn't going anywhere, and we had to work to find ways to convince him that we could actually be productive and get additional work done, Kerry told the White House press corps.

And to his credit, you know, didn't just lock the door and shut his mind and say, "I've had enough," but he engaged in that. He bought into the creative efforts to try to find ways of looking at things. And he was very patient with me and with that process, Kerry said, giving a glimpse of his interaction with Karzai.

Like any leader, he (Karzai) had internal pressures and internal issues of one faction or another that believed one thing or another, not to mention the fact that he believed very deeply, personally, that he had won the first round, he said adding that so there was a powerful need to overcome both those domestic pressures, as well as some of his own personal beliefs.

Kerry recollected the moments wherein he was given a personal tour by Karzai of the palace where the King lived.

I had one of the more interesting personal journeys, if you will, talking with him about Afghan history, about his family, their tribe, his father, their long history in Afghanistan and its politics, the period of Soviet domination, the Taliban, Kerry said.

He took me on a personal tour of the old palace where the king lived. He showed me what the Taliban did to the tapestries. We walked around his personal residence at great length, just talking about the challenges of the country. And it was really, you know, as personal and as intriguing and productive as, I think, this kind of endeavor could be, Kerry said.

And I am grateful to him for the trust that he put in me, at a personal level, to be able to try to have that kind of conversation and relationship. In the end, I think we're better for that, and I think where our opportunities can be followed up on in a more effective way in the days ahead, Kerry said.

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