KABUL (AFP) -- A spokesman for President Hamid Karzai Tuesday downplayed the Afghan leader's threat to Pakistan, saying that there was no intention to start a war with the neighboring country.

U.S.-backed Karzai said this weekend that his war-ravaged country would be justified in striking at Taliban insurgents on Pakistani soil in what he called self-defense.
“The president is not announcing that we are going to war with Pakistan. We do not intend to go to war with Pakistan. We believe in good relations,” Karzai's spokesman Homayun Hamidzada told reporters in Kabul.
“The president used that strong language to convey a message. Pakistan is a sovereign state and should behave responsibly,” he added.
Pakistan summoned the Afghan ambassador to the foreign office on Monday to receive a strong protest over Karzai's comments. It also pledged to defend its sovereignty.
The Taliban were toppled by U.S.-led forces in late 2001 but have regrouped to lead an insurgency that has cost thousands of lives including those of hundreds of foreign soldiers.