KABUL, May 4: Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Saturday that the CIA’s station chief in Kabul has assured him that regular funding the US intelligence agency gives his government will not be cut off.

He said the Afghan government had been receiving funds from CIA for more than a decade as part of regular monthly assistance from the US government.

Karzai had earlier confirmed that his government had received such payments following a story published in The New York Times that said the CIA had given the Afghan National Security Council tens of millions of dollars in monthly payments delivered in suitcases, backpacks and plastic shopping bags.

’’The help and assistance from the US is for our National Directorate of Security. That is state-to-state, government-to-government regular assistance,” Karzai said.

“So that is a government institution helping another government institution, and we appreciate all this assistance and help, all this assistance is very useful for us. We have spent it in different areas (and) solved lots of our problems.’’

Karzai would not say how much assistance his government had received because it was being used for intelligence work, but acknowledged it was in cash and that “all the money which we have spent, receipts have been sent back to the intelligence service of the United States monthly.’’

He claimed that much of the money was used to care for wounded employees of the NDS, Afghanistan’s intelligence service, and operational expenses.

’’It is an official government deal between the two governments. This is happening all over the world — such deals between governments — and in Afghanistan, which is a needy country, these sorts of deals are very important and useful,” he said at the news conference, held to announce the results of his recent trip to Europe.

Karzai confirmed the payments during a news conference earlier this week in Helsinki, Finland. After Karzai’s confirmation in Europe, White House spokesman Jay Carney declined to comment on the newspaper report, referring questions to the CIA, which also declined comment.

In his gathering with reporters at the presidential palace, Karzai said he had met earlier in the day with the Kabul station chief of the CIA.

“I told him because of all these rumours in the media, please do not cut all this money because we really need it,” Karzai said.“We want to continue this sort of assistance and he promised that they are not going to cut this money.’’ He added that negotiations for a new bilateral security agreement with the United States had been delayed because of conditions that Afghanistan had placed on such a deal.

The security agreement is to govern a US military presence after 2014 when nearly all foreign combat troops are to have finished their withdrawal from Afghanistan. The talks, which started in late 2012, are set to last up to a year.

President Barack Obama has not said how many troops will remain, although there have been estimates ranging from 8,000 to 12,000. It is unlikely such an announcement will be made until the security agreement is signed.

Those troops would help train Afghan forces and also carry out operations against Al Qaida and other militant groups.

Karzai said Afghanistan was ready to sign a deal as long as the American government in exchange for being able to stay on bases in the country agrees to terms of Afghan security, funding assistance and help with training and equipping Afghan security forces.

It is thought that the contentious issue of providing US troops immunity from Afghan law is a low priority for the Afghan government in the negotiations.—AP