The United States on Wednesday expressed its serious concern over corruption in Afghanistan, but said right now it is focused entirely on the November 7 run-off to presidential elections.
However, both the State Department and the White House refused to comment on a media report from New York, which says the Karzai's brother is an agent of the Central Intelligence Agency.
While the White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, referred the question to the CIA, the State Department spokesman, Ian Kelly, said they do not speak on intelligence matters.
"I'm just saying that we are very concerned about corruption. But I'm not going to comment on the relationship of President Karzai with his brother and how it may or may not influence policy," Kelly said at his daily press conference.
"We have made that clear to the government of Afghanistan, that we are very concerned about corruption and its very negative influence on how the people of Afghanistan see their government," he said.
"We made it quite clear that we are going to seek a new understanding with the government of Afghanistan on this issue. Once the elections are completed and we have a post-election administration in place, we're going to discuss these issues with them," Kelly said.
"Right now, we need to get through the second round. And our focus is on that: on providing support for the Afghans as they go through this process," he said.
