Pakistani police officers examine the site of suicide bombing on outskirt of Peshawar, Pakistan on... 
(AP)
The Obama administration took on high-stakes diplomacy with the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan Wednesday, seeking more cooperation against Taliban militants while apologizing for a U.S. bombing strike that Afghans said killed dozens of innocent civilians.
Meeting with Afghanistan President Harmid Karzai and Pakistan's Asif Ali Zardari in a prelude to their talks with President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Washington "deeply, deeply" regrets the loss of life, apparently as a result of a bombing there on Monday.
"Any loss of innocent life is particularly painful," Clinton said. Karzai responded before the cameras that he appreciated Clinton "showing concern and regret." The visiting leader also said he hoped Washington and Kabul could "work together to completely reduce civilian casualties in the struggle against terrorism."
State Department spokesman Robert A. Wood said later that Clinton's remarks were offered as a gesture, before all the facts of the incident are known, because "any time there is a loss of innocent life we are going to be concerned about it, and we wanted to make that very clear."
It is the struggle against terrorism, with U.S. troops fighting shadowy enemies on ill-defined battlefields, that got Karzai and Zardari invited to the nation's capital for these intense talks.
Karzai and Zardari responded positively to the call for greater cooperation and coordination, saying they, too, were committed to the struggle against the "common threat" posed by the Taliban and other militants.
"Madame secretary, do have full confidence in us," Karzai told the three countries' delegations, people who sat around a square table in an ornate State Department room. "Pakistan's democracy will deliver," said Zardari, whose government has been challenged by Taliban expansion but has this week launched military operations to push the militants away from areas near the capital.
He said his country "faces many challenges. Our democracy is trying to overcome these challenges ... but we are up to the challenge."
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