US President George W. Bush began his first visit to South Asia Wednesday with a surprise stop over in Afghanistan, where thousands of American troops are still engaged in hunting down the architects of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Bush's Air Force One flew to Bagram air base, headquarters of the US presence in Afghanistan, from where helicopters ferried him and his entourage across the dusty plain over mud brick homes to the capital, Kabul, where he held talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

He later flew to India, where anti-Bush protests by Muslims and communists were flaring, with hopes of elevating a new friendship between the two nations into a strategic partnership.

Bush is visiting Afghanistan at a time when the country is still troubled by a Taliban insurgency that has claimed 1,500 lives since the start of last year, including dozens of US soldiers.

There is an 18,000-strong US-led force stationed in Afghanistan, along with around 9,000 NATO-led peacekeepers.

But more than four years after US troops toppled the Taliban, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar remain at large. "It's not a matter of if they are captured and brought to justice, it's when they are brought to justice," Bush told a joint news conference with Karzai.

Bush said Afghans who visited Washington often asked him whether the US was committed Afghanistan's future.

"My answer is 'absolutely'," he said.

Bush's three-day visit to India is the fifth by a US president.

Bush is also due to visit the technology city of Hyderabad in the south tomorrow before flying to Pakistan.

Tens of thousands of Muslims and communists took to the streets across India on Wednesday to protest against his visit.

About 100,000 Muslim men gathered in a public ground in the heart of the Indian capital New Delhi shouting anti-Bush slogans.

"Go back, Bush," "Bush is a killer," "Bully Bush, buzz off," "Bush, stop the ambush," they shouted as hundreds of policemen in riot gear kept watch.

(China Daily via agencies March 2, 2006)