Camp David, Md. ? Afghan President Hamid Karzai met with President Bush on Monday amid increasing international concern over his country’s stability, with the Taliban apparently regaining strength, the opium industry flourishing and the unruly region along Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan re-established as a haven for al-Qaida.

But the two presidents put a determinedly upbeat cast on the situation in Afghanistan on Monday, as Bush insisted that U.S. and allied forces are gaining the upper hand against the Taliban and Karzai asserted that the radical Islamist movement is defeated and in hiding.

Responding to a recent furor, Bush also said the U.S. is ready to nab al-Qaida leaders in Afghanistan or Pakistan if it finds them. “I am confident that with actionable intelligence, we will be able to bring top al-Qaida to justice,” Bush said at a news conference following a private meeting with Karzai.

The president sidestepped the question of whether the U.S. would launch a strike against terrorist targets in Pakistan without the consent of the government of President Pervez Musharraf – an issue raised recently by Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., who said he would not necessarily wait for Musharraf’s consent.

“We’re in constant communications with the Pakistan government,” Bush said. “It’s in their interest that foreign fighters be brought to justice. After all, these are the same ones who were plotting to kill President Musharraf. … And I’m confident, with real actionable intelligence, we will get the job done.”

Karzai acknowledged the persistent problems he faces in his own nation, including a flourishing poppy crop that fuels international trafficking in opium and in turn helps finance terrorism in the region. Still, he insisted: “We have gone a long way. … Progress has been made. Our enemy is still there – defeated, but still hiding in the mountains. And our duty is to complete the job, to get them out of their hide-outs in the mountains.”

He added: “It’s a force that’s defeated. It’s a force that is frustrated.”

Despite such positive comments Monday, Karzai had said, heading into his overnight summit with Bush at Camp David, that his nation and its allies are “no closer” to finding al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden after more than five years of war since the U.S. invasion that toppled the Taliban regime.

“We are not closer, we are not further away from it,” Karzai told CNN. “We are where we were a few years ago. … I definitely know that he cannot be in Afghanistan. Where he is, is a question that I cannot answer at this point.”

The U.S. has committed 23,500 troops to Afghanistan, with a growing contingency of 26,000 NATO forces there as well. Bush voiced unwavering support for Karzai’s government.