KABUL, Afghanistan ? Afghan President Hamid Karzai called Wednesday on elders assembled for a national conference to create a framework for relations with the U.S. and find a path to peace for the turbulent country.
Karzai spoke at the opening of a "loya jirga," or grand council, which is expected to discuss a proposed strategic partnership with the United States that would oversee the American military presence here as troops draw down, as well as possible peace talks with the Taliban.
Karzai urged delegates to take their task seriously and stay focused on these issues.
"This jirga is only for the partnership and peace, nothing else," Karzai said, addressing concerns that he might use the gathering a way to gain backing for a constitutional amendment that would allow him to run for a third term.
About 2,000 Afghan elders convened the loya jirga in Kabul at Karzai's request. The gathering is part of the Afghan leader's quest for support for a U.S. security partnership ahead of the planned withdrawal of international troops by the end of 2014.
The council could give Karzai political cover for negotiations over a deal to keep some American troops in Afghanistan for another decade despite opposition from his people and the war-weary U.S. public.
Karzai has set out terms for a possible partnership ? such as banning international troops from entering any Afghan home and taking control of all detention facilities almost immediately ? that have so far been unacceptable to American officials, according to people familiar with the discussions.
The roughly 100,000 U.S. troops currently in Afghanistan operate without any bilateral agreement governing their actions.
In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said discussions were ongoing with the Afghan government.
"We want an agreement that's in the best interest of both our countries," Toner said. "It's better to get it right rather than fast."
Karzai has repeatedly vacillated between criticizing the U.S. for acting unilaterally in Afghanistan and praising his American allies as brothers in arms against the Taliban. It has been difficult to tell in recent months if he is just trying to stoke populist support with his criticism or is really preparing to stand firm on what he sees as a violation of sovereignty.
Few expect the four-day loya jirga to produce much of substance, both because its legal status is unclear and because there is no draft accord to present to the assembled elders.
Parliamentarians say the meeting is unconstitutional because it sidelines the legislature, which should be the body to decide national issues.
The 2,030 delegates will form some 40 committees to discuss issues involving the partnership, along with possibilities for peace with the Taliban, according to jirga officials.
The Taliban have condemned the meeting as an attempt by the U.S. to justify a permanent presence in Afghanistan, promising to launch attacks to disrupt it.
Much of Kabul went into a security lockdown ahead of the meeting, with extra roads closed and intelligence agents swarming around the meeting hall on the outskirts of the city. At the last such meeting ? a "peace jirga" held last June ? Taliban insurgents fired into the tent, disrupting the gathering but causing no casualties. Since then, a new hardened structure has been built that should in theory be less vulnerable to incoming fire.
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Amir Shah in Kabul and Matt Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
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