KABUL, March 9: The United States on Friday signed a deal transferring the notorious Bagram prison to Afghan control, marking a breakthrough in negotiations over a strategic treaty between the two nations.

The handover of the US-run prison — sometimes called Afghanistan's Guantanamo Bay — has been a key sticking point in talks between Washington and the Afghan government on concluding a long-term partnership pact.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly demanded in the name of Afghan sovereignty that the prison and its 3,000 inmates be transferred before he signs any deal governing Afghan-US relations after Nato combat troops pull out in three years.

That treaty would likely cover the legal status of US troops remaining in the country to help Kabul with intelligence, air power and logistics in the fight against Taliban militants.

In Iraq, Washington abandoned its pursuit of a strategic partnership deal and pulled out all its troops, leaving no residual force, after failing to get Baghdad to grant its soldiers legal immunity.

“This is an important step in the strategic partnership negotiations,” the US commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, said at the signing ceremony on the prison deal.

Afghan Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said the accord would see authority transferred gradually over six months.

“With the handover of the Bagram prison, one of the conditions of the Loya Jirga will be implemented. We are feeling very proud about this important step,” Mr Wardak said.

The prison, outside the Bagram airbase north of Kabul, holds Taliban fighters detained by US-led Nato forces in their 10-year war against the Taliban-led guerrilla war trying to topple the US-backed Karzai government.

Under the agreement, Afghan authorities will need to advise the US of plans to release any prisoners and “consider favourably” objections if the Americans consider such inmates could engage in “terrorist activity”.

The US would also maintain a presence at the prison to provide advisory, technical and logistical support for a year.

In turn, the Afghans would give the US and humanitarian bodies access to detainees to monitor their treatment under international humanitarian law.—AFP