U.S.: 'Imperative' Afghan Security Pact Signed This Year

The White House insisted Friday it is "imperative" that the United States and Afghanistan sign a new security pact this year, after the Afghan president said it could wait until his successor is elected.

"We have long made clear that we need to get a Bilateral Security Agreement done this year," spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.

"We've made clear that it's imperative that we do it as soon as possible, and further delay is not practical nor tenable," he said, calling for the pact to be signed "as soon as possible."

Kabul and Washington have agreed a joint draft of the pact, which governs the presence of U.S. troops in Afghanistan after 2014 and which is being debated by a council of Afghan elders.

U.S. commanders see nailing down the deal as essential to allowing them to begin planning the role of U.S. and international forces after Afghans take on responsibility for frontline combat.

But Afghan President Hamid Karzai, despite owing his rule to the U.S. intervention to overthrow Afghanistan's former Taliban regime, has proved a unpredictable ally in recent years.

And this week he dismayed his American partners by declaring that the security deal, even if endorsed by the loya jirga council, could not be signed until his successor is elected in April next year.

"The United States needs adequate time to plan a potential military mission with our NATO allies, and the Afghans have an election coming up," Carney said.

"The bottom line is that we need to conclude the agreement with signature between our two governments as quickly as possible, and certainly by the end of this year," he said.

"Failure to conclude the BSA by that point would make it impossible for the United States and our allies to plan for a presence post-2014," he warned.

"We have submitted our final offer -- sorry, we have submitted our final offer on the text -- and we hope the jirga will not be left to think that we are open to rewriting it. It is time to get this done."