U.S. and NATO Finalize Pacts on Ending Afghan War BRUSSELS - The United States and its allies in NATO finalized agreements on Wednesday to wind down the war in Afghanistan, paving the way for President Obama to announce at a NATO summit meeting in Chicago next month that the unpopular, nearly 11-year-old conflict is close to an end. But many of the most critical details remained unresolved, chief among them who would pay billions of dollars a year to support the Afghan security forces. After a day of meetings at NATO headquarters here, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said the allies had formalized three crucial commitments: to increasingly move the Afghans into a lead combat role; to keep some international troops in Afghanistan beyond 2014, the year all American forces are supposed to be home; and to pay billions of dollars a year to support the Afghan security forces. "The big picture is clear," Mrs. Clinton said. The transition is on track, the Afghans are increasingly standing up for their own security and future, and NATO remains united in our support. Although Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Panetta sought to display American and NATO solidarity - not least to deliver an important accomplishment for Mr. Obama in Chicago less than six months before the presidential election - there was a great sense of war weariness here, as the NATO meetings on Afghanistan have now entered their second decade. More immediately, questions intensified about the cost of supporting the Afghan forces. A tentative plan under discussion calls for the United States to contribute about $2.2 billion or more of the $4 billion annually, with the Afghan government contributing $500 million and donations from the allies covering the remaining $1.3 billion. Mrs. Clinton said that she and Mr. Panetta were "very encouraged" by commitments at the NATO meetings. But senior American defense officials traveling with Mr. Panetta to Brussels on Tuesday acknowledged that they were still short in allied pledges at a time when the financial crisis in Europe has led to cuts in defense budgets. The officials, who asked for anonymity because they were discussing internal NATO deliberations, would only say that they were making "good progress" in soliciting pledges. They declined several times to define that progress in numerical terms. The $4 billion in spending is for after 2014, when the Afghan security forces are expected to shrink to 230,000 personnel, down from a peak of 352,000 they are to reach this year. American officials have acknowledged that the reduction is driven largely by financial constraints on Afghanistan and its allies. The United States and its partners now spend about $6 billion a year on Afghanistan's security forces. President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan threw a wrench into the deliberations over the cost of the security forces on Tuesday when he said in Kabul, the Afghan capital, that he wanted a written commitment of $2 billion a year from the United States. Mr. Panetta quickly batted that aside. "As both the secretary of state and I know from our own experience, you have to deal with Congress when it comes to what funds are going to be provided," he said. And we don't have the power to lock in money for the Afghans. Also unresolved at the NATO meetings was how many international troops, both from the United States and its allies, would remain in Afghanistan after 2014. American officials and Mr. Karzai say they are committed to having United States forces there, but their number and role has to be negotiated. There are now about 90,000 American troops in the country.