He also said that allegations of corruption against his government were ill-informed and that the United States was largely responsible for fuelling graft in the impoverished country. "I've come to believe (that)... corruption comes from the United States through contracts and through the corruption in both systems," he told the US television network from his presidential offices in Kabul. The "perception of corruption is deliberate to render the Afghan government exploitable, to weaken it," the president added.
Karzai, who has long had a strained relationship with his American partners, alleged that the United States has failed to abide by an agreement to transfer hundreds of detainees held at a prison in Bagram, north of Kabul, to Afghan control. Afghan leaders made handing over control of the Bagram prison a condition for signing a strategic partnership agreement with Washington that lays the ground for a future US military presence beyond 2014, when the bulk of US and Nato combat troops are due to withdraw. Since mid-November, American and Afghan officials have started to negotiate the terms of a potential follow-on US force.