US President Barack Obama has invited Afghan President Hamid Karzai to Washington in January for talks on the future of Afghanistan once NATO-led forces withdraw in two years, officials said.
US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced the visit late on Thursday at a joint news conference with Karzai in the Afghan capital Kabul.Obama had asked his Afghan counterpart to meet him in the United States for talks on January 7 "to discuss a shared vision of Afghanistan beyond 2014," said Panetta, adding that Karzai had accept the invitation.
The Pentagon chief was in Afghanistan for a two-day tour as Obama weighs the pace of a troop drawdown and the size of a potential follow-on force once the bulk of the NATO-led contingent pulls out in 2014.