-AP Photo

WASHINGTON: The White House said on Monday that the US was not in Afghanistan to secure every inch of its territory and the next Nato summit in Chicago would focus on turning over the country's security to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.

At a White House briefing, Press Secretary Jay Carney also stressed the need for US soldiers to operate in a way that enhanced US cooperation with the Afghans and not in a way that detracted them from this objective.

Scores of people — including four US soldiers — have been killed in Afghanistan in the past few days in violent protests that followed the burning of the Holy Quran by American troops.

“How much is the killing four US service members is linked to the burning incident and how much of it is just the tipping point for an overall exhaustion and anger due to the American presence?” asked a journalist.

“We are keenly aware of concerns expressed in the past by (Afghan) President Karzai and others about the way that we operate there and the need to be sure that we operate in a way that enhances our cooperation and doesn't detract from it,” Mr Carney said. “And we work very carefully to try to do that.”

The US objective, he said, was to defeat those who attacked America on Sept 11, 2001. “And part of how we do that is working with the Afghan government to help stabilise that situation in that country, to allow them to have the security infrastructure that they need so that they can prevent Al Qaeda from returning and plotting again against the United States and its allies,” he said.

“This is an issue that obviously predates this most recent (burning) incident. And we work with President Karzai and the Afghan government to try to mitigate some of the tensions that understandably exist in a situation as this, but only insofar as they don't compromise our national security interests.”

Responding to another question, Mr Carney said the United States had a specific mission in Afghanistan, “which is not to secure every inch of territory but to achieve an objective, which is to disrupt, dismantle, defeat Al Qaeda”.And while working on that objective, the US wanted to stabilise the Afghan government and help build up Afghan security forces so that they could take over the security of their own country, the White House official said.

“Can you just explain what elements of our objectives have not been completed in February of 2012 the president is anticipating would be completed by 2014?” asked another journalist.

Mr Carney noted that while Al Qaeda's ranks had been diminished, it remained a very serious threat to the United States and to its allies and they should not let up in the effort to fully defeat that group.

Besides working on this “very important” objective, the US also wanted to “create the time and space” the Afghan government and security forces needed to take full security lead in their country.

“And that process, as outlined in Lisbon by Nato and made clear by the president of the United States, will be completed by the end of 2014,” he said.

“The (summit) meeting in Chicago in May of Nato will be focused a great deal on the implementation of that policy, of making sure that we can turn over security lead by the end of 2014,” he added.