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Afghan President Hamid Karzai yesterday backed a proposed security pact with the United States that will see up to 15,000 foreign troops stay in the country, but said it would not be signed until after next year's election.
A grand assembly of tribal chieftains, community elders and politicians began four days of debating the bilateral security agreement (BSA), which will shape Washington's future military presence in Afghanistan.
Hours before the meeting, US Secretary of State John Kerry said the two sides had finally agreed the text of the pact after months of difficult negotiations.
If the "loya jirga" assembly approves the BSA, it must then be passed by the Afghan parliament.
It has been touted as vital to the country's future after 2014, when the bulk of Nato's 75,000 troops will pull out. The Taliban insurgency this year has reached levels of violence not seen since 2010, according to the UN.
Karzai urged the 2,500 delegates to consider Afghanistan's "future prosperity".
He said: "This agreement provides us a transitional period to reach stability in the next ten years ahead of us."
US President Barack Obama, in a letter to Karzai, said the US would continue to respect "Afghan sovereignty" under a new security agreement.
Obama also said the US military would not conduct raids on Afghan homes except under "extraordinary circumstances" involving urgent risks to US nationals. The raids have been a particularly sensitive issue.
However, Karzai signalled yet another delay to the pact, which Washington had wanted completed by the end of October, saying it would only be signed "when our elections are conducted, correctly and with dignity".
Afghanistan goes to the polls on April 5 to elect a successor to Karzai, who must step down after serving two terms, and a credible election is seen as important to the country's future stability.
Karzai told delegates Afghanistan needed Washington's co-operation to ensure a fair ballot.
The deal would see 10,000 to 15,000 foreign troops remain in Afghanistan after Nato pulls out the bulk of its forces by the end of next year, Karzai said.
But he stressed that not all would be American, saying there would be troops from other Nato countries and "some other Muslim nations".
And he gave a frank assessment of his often thorny relationship with Washington, his principal foreign backer.
"America does not trust me and I do not trust them. I have had struggles with them and they have spread propaganda against me," he said.
The Taliban has condemned the jirga as an American plot and threatened to target its delegates if they approve the deal. Last week a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb near the jirga area, killing 12 people, most of them civilians.
A draft text released by Kabul late on Wednesday appeared to show Karzai had bowed to a US demand that American troops would not be tried in local courts if they are accused of crimes - an issue that became a major hurdle in the negotiations.
A similar deal between the United States and Iraq collapsed in 2011 over the issue of whether American troops would be answerable to local courts, leading Washington to pull its forces out.
But the text, published on the Afghan foreign ministry website, said Kabul had agreed that the US should have "the exclusive right to exercise jurisdiction" over its forces in Afghanistan.
"Afghanistan authorises the United States to hold trial(s) in such cases, or take other disciplinary action, as appropriate, in the territory of Afghanistan," it said.
Additional reporting by Associated Press


Hamid Karzai backs Afghan security pact with US but signals another delay

Afghan tribal elders and leaders listen during a four-day meeting in Kabul to debate the bilateral security agreement. Photo: AFP

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He says a deal to keep up to 15,000 troops in Afghanistan will not be signed before April poll


Afghan President Hamid Karzai yesterday backed a proposed security pact with the United States that will see up to 15,000 foreign troops stay in the country, but said it would not be signed until after next year's election.
