KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai summoned the Nato commander and the US ambassador on Monday to express concern about civilian deaths in recent operations, his office said in a statement.

Karzai warned that if Afghan lives were not protected the Strategic Partnership Agreement he signed with US President Barack Obama last week would lose its meaning, the statement said.

Tens of civilians, including women and children, had been killed in Nato bombardments in four provinces since Saturday, the statement charged.

“The Afghan president this evening summoned Nato Commander General John Allen and US Ambassador Ryan Crocker for an emergency meeting at the Presidential Palace,” the statement said.

He “expressed his concerns about the civilian casualties incurred by our people in four provinces” -- Logar and Helmand in the south, Kapisa in the east and Badghis in the northwest.

The president said civilian casualties always hurt Afghan-American relations, adding that Afghanistan had signed the strategic pact with the US to prevent such incidents and safeguard the lives of Afghans.

“If the lives of Afghans are not protected, the strategic partnership will lose its meaning,” the statement quoted the president as saying.

Civilian casualties have always been a sensitive issue in the US-led war against a Taliban insurgency and have often been the cause of tense relations between Kabul and Washington.

The number of civilians killed has risen steadily each year for the past five years, reaching a record of 3,021 in 2011, the great majority caused by militants, according to UN statistics.