Afghan-US deal falters as Karzai demands Taliban talks

KABUL: President Hamid Karzai on Saturday signaled that a deal to allow US troops to stay in Afghanistan was close to collapse as the NATO combat mission withdraws after a decade of fighting the Taliban.

Late last year, Karzai made a surprise decision not to promptly sign the bilateral security agreement (BSA) with the US, despite a "loya jirga" national assembly voting for him to do so.