Karzai wants partnership with U.S.

KABUL, Afghanistan, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai says he would like an "enduring partnership" with the United States that could keep American forces in his country.

With U.S. troops having completed their withdrawal from Iraq, Karzai was asked during an interview with CNN if he favored having a residual American military present in Afghanistan. U.S. troops have been fighting in Afghanistan for 10 years.

"We are negotiating with the United States towards an enduring partnership," Karzai said. "That may bring about the presence of some U.S. troops in Afghanistan for the duration of the agreement that we reach, with support to Afghanistan, with training and equipping the Afghan forces.

"But we'll have to wait for the agreement and the specifics of it."

The Los Angeles Times reported recently there are 94,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, with 3,000 to leave by the end of the month. The goal is to have the number reduced to 68,000 by the end of next summer, the newspaper said.

When asked about NATO's use of nighttime raids on Afghan residences in search of insurgents, Karzai said they were a bone of contention between his government and the United States.

"We want Afghanistan's homes, Afghanistan's villages, to be protected, to be safe from such attacks," he said.

"What we are asking for in very specific and clear terms that is no foreign forces should enter Afghan homes."

Karzai said the Afghan constitution prohibits his running for president again in 2014, when a drawdown of foreign forces would coincide with the end of this term, and he hoped for a political settlement with the Taliban by that time, CNN reported.