A poll showed on Thursday that 77 percent of Afghans fear foreign occupation troops in their war-torn country.

A poll showed on Thursday that 77 percent of Afghans fear foreign occupation troops in their war-torn country.

The annual poll was released by the Asia Foundation, indicated that some 77 percent of respondents, or more than three out of four Afghans, said they would “be afraid when encountering international forces.”

The poll come amid mounting frustration in Washington over President Hamed Karzai’s refusal to sign a security deal that would allow the presence of US occupation troops in Afghanistan beyond 2014.
The US, which has about 46,000 troops in Afghanistan, needs the security pact to keep thousands of its forces in the country beyond 2014.
Karzai says he will not sign the pact unless Washington ends raids on Afghan homes, among other demands.

The Afghan president’s spokesman also said on Wednesday that Karzai would not allow any minister to sign the security pact unless Kabul’s key demands are met.

The comment came a day after US Secretary of State John Kerry said the bilateral pact could be signed by Afghan defense minister, effectively circumventing Karzai.

“His minister of defense can sign it, the government can sign it, somebody can accept responsibility for this,” Kerry told a gathering of NATO ministers in Brussels.