WASHINGTON - Feeling the pressure being built round him after delivering a scorching attack on the West for its conduct in Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai telephoned Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday to express surprise that his comments had caused such a stir, according to media reports Saturday. Citing administration, the report said Karzai told Mrs Clinton that he had not meant to criticise the United States but rather Western news coverage of Afghanistan. In a speech on Thursday, Karzai accused the news media of spreading reports characterising last years presidential election as fraudulent to pressure me. Hillary told Karzai, 'Were prepared to stay focused on the work ahead, said the State Department spokesman, Philip Crowley. In a 25-minute exchange that officials described as forceful but not angry, Hillary spoke about Americas commitment to Afghanistan and told Karzai that the United States had no control over American news coverage. The United States has pressed Karzai to undertake electoral changes to avoid a repeat of the widespread fraud that tainted his election last year. But during the call, an official said, Hillary emphasised that the United States had not tried to manipulate the parliamentary debate. She said, 'Im speaking to you as a friend and as secretary of state, he said. As relations between the Obama administration and Karzai have become tense, Hillary has increasingly taken on the role of interlocutor. In a statement, the State Department said Karzai reaffirmed his commitment to the partnership between our two countries, and expressed his appreciation for the contributions and sacrifices of the international community. They pledged to continue working together. AFP adds: President Karzai came under fire in US media Saturday for what The New York Times called his delusional criticism of his foreign allies in the fight against the Taliban. The rebukes came in reaction to a speech Karzai made Thursday blaming foreigners for widespread vote fraud in the countrys presidential and provincial elections, and warning that the 126,000 NATO-led troops risked being seen as invaders. Calling the speech alarming, the New York Times said it reinforced doubts about Karzais credibility as a leader. His delusional criticism of the United Nations and governments whose troops are risking their lives by fighting the Taliban complicates the difficult effort to stabilize Afghanistan, the Times said. And it undermines the fragile public support for Obamas strategy, which focuses on protecting and improving the lives of Afghan civilians as well as on defeating the Taliban, it said. That effort depends on credible leadership in Kabul. It has long been unclear whether Mr Karzai can provide it, and his latest comments do not help, it said. In an editorial headlined Cuckoo Karzai, the tabloid New York Daily News warned the Afghan president was playing with fire. As America sends thousands of young men and women to his unstable land to root out Al-Qaeda and Taliban forces and enable his (kind of) duly elected government to reassert authority, he launched an offensive against his would-be saviors, it said. Karzai risks turning a weary American public against the war in Afghanistan and cementing Afghan resistance to a US presence. This is a most dangerous game, not least for US troops, the editorial said. Karzai received a more sympathetic hearing in the opinion pages of the Washington Post, where Michael OHanlon of the Brookings Institution and Afghan businesswoman Hassina Sherjan urged the administration to stop lecturing Hamid Karzai in public. Karzai went too far, they wrote. His comments were unfair and risked encouraging critics of the Afghanistan mission who want to portray foreign forces as unwelcome. But his remarks were also a predictable result of American browbeating. Kabul and Washington are partners in the effort to create a stable, democratic state; they should understand that public displays of rancor are best avoided.