Afghanistan seeks new conditions in US security deal KABUL/WASHINGTON, November 26 - Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai has refused to sign a security deal with the US, the White House said, opening up the prospect of a complete withdrawal of US troops from the strife-torn nation next year. Mr Karzai told Susan Rice, US national security adviser, in a meeting on Monday that the US must put an immediate end to military raids on Afghan homes and demonstrate its commitment to peace talks before the Afghan leader would sign a bilateral security pact, Mr Karzai's spokesman said. The White House said Mr Karzai had outlined new conditions and "indicated he is not prepared to sign the [bilateral security agreement] promptly." The latest obstacle to concluding the long negotiations on the security agreement came a day after an assembly of Afghan elders endorsed the deal, but Mr Karzai suggested he might not sign it until after national elections in 2014. It also raises questions about whether any US and NATO troops will remain after the end of 2014 in Afghanistan, which faces a still-potent insurgency and is still training up its own military. US officials, including secretary of state John Kerry and defence secretary Chuck Hagel, said the deal must be signed by year-end to begin preparations for a post-2014 presence. Ms Rice, who made a three-day visit to Afghanistan to visit US troops, told Mr Karzai that the delay "would not provide the US and NATO allies the clarity necessary to plan for a potential post-2014 military presence," the White House said. "Without a prompt signature, the US would have no choice but to initiate planning for a post-2014 future in which there would be no US or NATO troop presence in Afghanistan," the White House said. There are currently 47,000 US troops in Afghanistan. Aimal Faizi, Mr Karzai's spokesman, said the Afghan leader laid out several preconditions for signing the deal, including a US pledge to halt immediately all military raids on, or searches of, Afghan homes. The bilateral security agreement includes a provision allowing raids in exceptional circumstances - when an American life is directly under threat - but it would not take effect until 2015. This issue is particularly sensitive among Afghans after a dozen years of war between Afghan and foreign forces and Taliban militants. "It is vitally important that there is no more killing of Afghan civilians by US forces and Afghans want to see this practically," Mr Faizi said. Mr Karzai also called on Washington to send remaining Afghan detainees at the US military detention centre in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, back to Afghanistan, saying that the Loya Jirga, the assembly of elders and leaders that convened last week to debate the deal, had endorsed the pact with this condition. Mr Faizi said Mr Karzai also asked the US officials to guarantee that the US would refrain from endorsing any candidate in the national elections next year. Mr Karzai blamed the US for meddling in the 2009 presidential election, while his opponents accuse the president of using the pact to ensure his influence in next year's polls. US officials have appeared exasperated by Mr Karzai's stance on the security agreement, which they say is needed to help them plan a future mission that will assist Afghan forces fight militants and that will allow for future aid that has been crucial for this impoverished nation. The Obama administration has not said when it would make a decision to abandon the talks and commit to pulling all of its troops out of Afghanistan at the end of 2014 as it did in Iraq at the end of 2011.