NATO forces in Afghanistan to move to support role "this spring": Obama (2)

Karzai was pleased about the new arrangement, saying "I'm very happy to hear from the president, as we also discussed it earlier, that in spring this year, the Afghan forces will be fully responsible for providing security and protection to the Afghan people."

"The international forces, the American forces, will be no longer present in Afghan villages," he said. "The task will be that of the Afghan forces to provide for the Afghan people security and protection."

Right now, the United States and Afghanistan are still negotiating a security agreement on the level of the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan in post-2014 period. The White House, concerned by the potentially huge human and financial costs it could entail, is still weighing the size of the residual forces. The options reportedly range from as low as 3,000 to as many as 15, 000.

But Obama stressed at the press conference that any U.S. troops in Afghanistan beyond 2014 must be at the "invitation" of the Afghan government and they must have legal immunity.

"Nowhere do we have any kind of security agreement with a country without immunity for our troops," Obama said.

"From my perspective at least, it will not be possible for us to have any kind of U.S. troops presence post-2014 without assurances that our men and women who are operating there are in some way subject to the jurisdiction of another country," he added.

For his part, Karzai said that the number of U.S. troops staying beyond 2014 is for Washington to decide.

He also noted that with outstanding issues between the United States and Afghanistan being resolved, he can "go to the Afghan people and argue for immunity for U.S. troops in Afghanistan."

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