Afghan President Hamid Karzai told US defense Secretary Leon Panetta that his country wanted takeover of security in 2013 not 2014.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai told US defense Secretary Leon Panetta that  his country wanted takeover of  security in 2013 not 2014.

"Afghanistan is ready to take overall security responsibility", a statement from Karzai’s office said.

"Our demand is that this process should be executed sharply and the responsibility should be handed over to Afghans."
Karzai said both sides should work together so that the process of handing security from international occupation troops to Afghan forces would be completed in 2013 rather than 2014, the statement added.

The Afghan president also called on the United States to pull all its troops out of villages, where they have outposts, and relocate them in their bases.
International forces should "be withdrawn from villages and relocated in their bases", the statement said.

Karzai demands came just few days after US soldier committed a massacre in Kandahar, where he killed and burned at least 16 civilians including children and women in a village there.

The massacre sparked furious protests across the country, where hundreds of Afghans demonstrated against the US occupation.
The relations between Afghanistan and US were already strained following burning copies of the holy Quran at US afghan Base in Bagram two weeks earlier.

Seeking to defuse tensions between the two countries, Panetta visited Afghanistan. On Thursday, Panetta said after the meeting he was "confident" the Washington and Kabul would work out a treaty allowing a US military presence in the country beyond a pullout in 2014.

Panetta said he was “optimistic” that both sides would reach an agreement on night raids -- a major issue blocking the treaty -- ahead of a NATO summit in Chicago in May.