U.S. Army Cultural Support Team soldiers speak with a young Afghan girl in Darvishan Village, Afghanistan.
The current strategy agreed to by NATO, its partners and Karzai's government is to enable the Afghans to take over the war against the Taliban and other insurgents by the end of 2014.
NATO started drawing down its forces earlier this year. It currently has 104,000 troops in Afghanistan — 68,000 of them Americans — down from 140,000 the alliance had here in 2011. Among those who left are the 33,000 U.S. troops deployed to Afghanistan after 2009, when President Barack Obama ordered a surge in a bid to quell the Taliban.
Karzai also said he did not believe the outcome of the upcoming presidential elections in the United States would affect Washington's long-term policy toward Afghanistan regardless of whether President Barack Obama or his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, emerges as the winner.
"America has a set strategy for Afghanistan and any government who comes in will follow that, so it will not affect Afghanistan," Karzai said.
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Associated Press writers Heidi Vogt and Amir Shah contributed to this report.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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