VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said the decision is part of a “fresh, bold look” his department is taking to help veterans who have what’s commonly called “Gulf War illness” and have long felt the government did little to help them. The VA says it also plans to improve training for medical staff who work with Gulf War vets, to make sure they do not simply tell vets that their symptoms are imaginary — as has happened to many over the years.

“I’m hoping they’ll be enthused by the fact that this … challenges all the assumptions that have been there for 20 years,” Shinseki told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview.

The changes reflect a significant shift in how the VA may ultimately care for some 700,000 veterans who served in the Gulf War. It also could change how the department handles war-related illness suffered by future veterans, as Shinseki said he wants standards put in place that don’t leave veterans waiting decades for answers to what ails them.

The decision comes four months after Shinseki opened the door for as many as 200,000 Vietnam veterans to receive service-related compensation for three illnesses stemming from exposure to the Agent Orange herbicide.

About 175,000 to 210,000 Gulf War veterans have come down with a pattern of symptoms that include rashes, joint and muscle pain, sleep issues and gastrointestinal problems, according to a 2008 congressionally mandated committee that based the estimate on earlier studies.

But what exactly caused the symptoms has long been unanswered. Independent scientists have pointed to pesticide and pyridostigmine bromide pills, given to protect troops from nerve agents, as probable culprits. The 2008 report noted that since 1994, $340 million has been spent on government research into the illness, but little has focused on treatments.

Last week, Shinseki and Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., a member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs committee, met privately in Charleston, W.Va., with several Gulf War veterans. In an interview after the meeting, Rockefeller told the AP that Shinseki’s background as a former Army chief of staff made the changes possible. He said either the military has been reluctant over the years to release paperwork related to the war or kept poor records about exposures in the war zone, which made it harder for the veterans to prove they needed help.

“The paperwork isn’t very accurate, but the pain is very real,” Rockefeller said.

Shinseki has publicly wondered why today there are still so many unanswered questions about Gulf War illness, as stricken veterans’ conditions have only worsened with age.

Last fall, he appointed a task force led by his chief of staff, John Gingrich, a retired Army colonel who commanded a field artillery battalion in the 1991 war, to review benefits and care for Gulf War veterans. The changes stem from the task force’s work.

Gingrich said in an interview that he feels a personal stake because some of his own men who were healthy during the war are dealing with these health problems. Gingrich said the VA isn’t giving a new benefit to Gulf War veterans, just making sure the claims they submitted were done correctly.

“We’re talking about a culture change, that we don’t have a single clinician or benefits person saying ‘you really don’t have Gulf War illness, this is only imaginary’ or ‘you’re really not sick,’” Gingrich said.

A law enacted in 1994 allows the VA to pay compensation to Gulf War veterans with certain chronic disabilities from illnesses the VA could not diagnosis. More than 3,400 Gulf War have qualified for benefits under this category, according to the VA.

The VA says it plans to review how regulations were written to ensure the veterans received the compensation they were entitled to under the law. The VA would then give veterans the opportunity to have a rejected claim reconsidered.

The VA doesn’t have an estimate of the number of veterans who may be affected, but it could be in the thousands.

Abdul Ghafor Sayedzada, a top investigator for the Kabul police, says a series of explosions occurred Friday morning near the Kabul City Center, a nine-story shopping area that includes the Safi Landmark Hotel. Eyewitnesses said one guest house was destroyed and another was heavily damaged.

Sayed Kabir Amiry, the director of the hospitals in the Afghan capital, says about five other people were wounded in the attack.

Attackers were exchanging gunfire with police about an hour and a half after the first blast.

Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary says police have established a security perimeter around the area.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

KABUL (AP) — A series of explosions rocked an area near a hotel in the heart of the Afghan capital Friday. Witnesses said suicide bombers were to blame and that gunmen opened fire at the site.

Abdul Ghafor Sayedzada, a top investigator for the Kabul police, confirmed the blasts, which woke up residents near the Kabul City Center, a nine-story shopping area that includes the Safi Landmark Hotel.

Najibullah, a 25-year-old hotel worker, said he ran out of the hotel in his underwear when he heard the first explosion. He said he saw two suicide bombers on the site.

“I saw foreigners were crying and shouting,” said Najibullah, whose face and hands were covered in blood. “It was a very bad situation inside. God helped me; otherwise I would be dead. I saw one suicide bomber blowing himself up on the first floor of the hotel.”

There was no official confirmation about the target of the explosions, but an official from the Interior Ministry said one suicide bomber detonated an explosive near the shopping area. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because an investigation was still under way, said more than one suicide bomber might have been involved.

The blasts occurred on Friday, the first day of the Afghan weekend when fewer people are on the streets.

A building was on fire in front of the four-star hotel, which is close to most government offices. A reporter for The Associated Press said gunmen opened fire at the site. Shattered glass covered the streets. A large plume of black smoke was seen rising from the area. Afghan police, armed with Kalashnikov rifles, moved in taking cover in the doorways of shops.

The marathon, 7 1/2-hour session did reveal narrow areas of agreement on the topic that has vexed Congress for months and defied U.S. leaders for decades. But larger ideological differences overwhelmed any common ideas, all but cementing the widely held view that a meaningful bipartisan health care bill is not possible as time grows short in this election year.

Obama rejected Republican preferences for starting over, discussing the issue much longer or dealing with it in a limited, step-by-step fashion.

“We cannot have another yearlong debate about this,” Obama declared. “I’m not sure we can bridge the gap.”

Party officials said March is probably the last chance to act.

It has been more than a year since he proposed his overhaul, which would be important to virtually all Americans in remaking the way they receive and pay for health care. The version he embraces, basically tracking legislation passed by the Senate, would expand health coverage to some 30 million people who lack it and stop insurance companies from dropping people for questionable reasons or denying coverage to people who have certain illnesses.

Obama and the Democrats portray the current situation as a major crisis, with tens of millions of people left with no health insurance at all and health care costs threatening to bankrupt the nation. The Republicans see problems as well, but seek more modest steps to deal with them and say Obama’s plan would run up the federal deficit — despite his claims to the contrary.

Obama strongly suggested that Democrats will try to pass a sweeping overhaul without GOP support, by using controversial Senate budget rules that would disallow filibusters. And then, he said, this fall’s elections would write the verdict on who was right.

Democratic leaders tried to portray Republicans as hypocrites for denouncing parliamentary tactics they, too, have used. Democratic leaders hope to embolden colleagues who worry about re-election races in the face of polls showing substantial dislike for the party’s approach.

The Democrats-only strategy could face particularly strong resistance in the House, where 39 party members voted against an Obama-backed health care bill last year.

Democratic officials confirmed Thursday that the White House has developed a slimmed-down health care plan as a possible “Plan B” fallback.

But that contingency also faces problems, including possible defections from House liberals who insist the overhaul must be expansive. Democratic officials conceded it’s possible that no health care legislation will pass this year, which would leave their candidates with little to show while Republicans claimed a big win.

At Thursday’s summit, Rep. Eric Cantor, the No. 2 House Republican, agreed with Obama that “we have a very difficult gap to bridge here.” But he differed strenuously about resolving it. “We just can’t afford this,” he said of the $1 trillion, 10-year proposal. “That’s the ultimate problem.”

Cable news networks carried long portions of the summit, which featured 38 lawmakers sitting around a square table heaped with documents and notepads. They spoke of arcane issues such as insurance “rescissions” between sharp partisan exchanges. Moderator Obama, looking annoyed at times, interrupted Republicans fairly often, and a few of them interrupted him back.

At one point, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky accused him of shortchanging the GOP on opportunities to speak.

With the conversation veering between mind-numbing detail and flaring tempers, the two sides held onto long-entrenched positions.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., derided Obama’s plan. “This is a car that can’t be recalled and fixed,” he said, “and we ought to start over.”

Alexander challenged Obama’s claim that insurance premiums would fall under the Democratic legislation. “You’re wrong,” he said. Responded Obama: “I’m pretty certain I’m not wrong.”

Democratic officials said House and Senate leaders will confer with colleagues in coming days or weeks to see if they have enough votes to push a far-reaching bill through both chambers with no GOP help.

Republicans repeatedly pressed Obama to renounce the possibility of using “budget reconciliation” rules to push the Democratic plans through the Senate without allowing GOP filibusters. Obama brushed them off, saying they seemed more interested in process than substance.

Americans want a decision on health care, the president said, and most of them think “a majority vote makes sense.” Democrats control 59 of the Senate’s 100 seats, one vote short of the number needed to halt bill-killing filibusters.

Top Democrats described the summit as the beginning of the end of their long push to overhaul health care, a bid rocked by raucous, conservative-dominated forums last summer that threw Democrats on the defensive. Eyeing the November elections, rank-and-file Democratic lawmakers are desperate to resolve the debate and focus on jobs and economic revival.

“If nothing comes of this, we’re going to press forward,” Democratic Senate Whip Richard Durbin told reporters during a break in the summit. “We just can’t quit.”

One of the sharpest exchanges occurred between Obama and Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican he defeated for the presidency. As McCain criticized numerous provisions in the Democrats’ plan, Obama said, “we’re not campaigning anymore. The election is over.”

McCain laughed and said, “I’m reminded of that everyday.”

At another point, McCain refused to yield to Obama, saying, “Can I just finish please?”

Obama ribbed Cantor, the House GOP whip, for bringing to the table the 2,400-page Senate bill, which the Virginia congressman described as too costly, bureaucratic and intrusive. Obama called it a political prop, and said health care is a complex issue that can’t be reduced to snippets.

Republicans repeatedly noted that polls suggest Democrats are on the wrong track. A USA Today/Gallup survey released Thursday found Americans, by 49 percent to 42, lean against Democrats forging ahead without any GOP support. Slightly more than half oppose the idea of Senate Democrats using budget rules to bar filibusters to stop the bill.

Congressional aides said top Democrats will take a few days to gauge the summit’s impact on the public and, perhaps more importantly, on moderate House members who are likely to determine whether any health care bill will pass.

If the effort fails, Democrats may try a scaled-back plan to insure about 15 million more Americans, rather than 30 million. Among other things, the plan would require insurance companies to let people up to age 26 stay on their parents’ health plans.

The summit participants noted a handful of areas where the two parties seem largely to agree. They include barring insurers from dropping customers who become sick, ending annual and lifetime monetary limits on health insurance benefits and letting young adults stay on their parents’ health policies to their mid-20s or so.

But Republicans stuck to their main talking points. “The American people want us to scrap this bill,” said House GOP Leader John Boehner of Ohio, reaching over and touching the massive Senate legislation.