Kabul, Afghanistan ? President Bush leaned on the Afghan government Wednesday to spare a man threatened with the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity.

Seeking to avoid a confrontation with the United States and NATO allies, Afghan officials suggested they might cite the conversion of Abdul Rahman, 41, as proof of insanity in order to cut short a trial under Islamic law.

“We have got influence in Afghanistan and we are going to use it to remind them that there are universal values,” Bush said of the government of President Hamid Karzai, which was installed under the umbrella of U.S. military power.

“It is deeply troubling that a country we helped liberate would hold a person to account because they chose a particular religion over another,” Bush said.

Canada joined the United States, Germany and Italy – all of which have troops in Afghanistan – in protesting the charges against Rahman, who said he became a Christian while working for a U.S. charity in 1990.