U.S.-Afghan security pact hits impasse as time runs out

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai (R) shakes hands with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry after a news conference at the Presidential Palace in Kabul October 12, 2013. REUTERS/Jacquelyn Martin/Pool

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai has rejected a provision of a U.S.-Afghan security pact, putting the entire deal in jeopardy just days before the country's elite gather to debate it, a senior Afghan official and a Western diplomat said.

The question of whether foreign troops will be able to search Afghan homes after NATO's combat mission ends next year has long been a sticking point of an agreement setting out the terms under which remaining U.S. forces will operate there.