Karzai says he might leave it to successor to sign U.S. accord --- KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai delivered a tepid endorsement of a proposed 10-year security pact with the United States in a rambling speech to an Afghan tribal gathering here Thursday, but surprised attendees by saying Afghanistan might not sign the accord until next spring. -- Karzai told an assembly of 2,700 Afghans that the Bilateral Security Agreement is vital to Afghanistan’s future security. However, he complained bitterly about his relationship with the United States and suggested waiting for his successor to sign the deal after Afghan elections in April. -- The U.S. clearly expected a much quicker resolution. President Obama wrote Karzai on Thursday seeking to have the pact concluded "promptly." -- Obama wrote that U.S. forces will "not enter Afghan homes for the purposes of military operations, except under extraordinary circumstances involving urgent risk to life and limb of U.S. nationals." The security deal would create a much smaller U.S. force to Afghanistan, primarily for training and counter-terrorism, after combat troops withdraw. -- "My trust with America is not good. I don’t trust them and they don’t trust me," Karzai said in Dari to the delegates, most of them white-bearded elders in ornate turbans, at the close of his 75-minute address. -- "I have fought with them the last 10 years, and they have made propaganda against me," he added, an apparent reference to depictions of Karzai by some American officials here as corrupt, cunning and unreliable. -- Those arch comments set off a blast of Twitter posts by Afghans even before Karzai had finished speaking. -- Karzai accused the U.S. of pressuring him to sign the deal too quickly. He insisted on taking time to study proposed language "line by line and word for word" while seeking consultation with Afghan elders. -- "We wanted to be careful because we were in a weak position and the United States was in a strong position," Karzai said. -- Karzai asked the loya jirga why U.S. forces raided Afghan villages when the U.S. knows where "terrorist sanctuaries" are, referring to Pakistan. "Why don’t you go after them there?" he asked.-- U.S. troops accused of crimes in Afghanistan would be subject to U.S. rather than Afghan law, despite Karzai’s insistence on legal jurisdiction. The agreement says U.S. law also covers the "civilian component," or Pentagon civilians, with U.S. military units. But it says Afghanistan "maintains the right to exercise jurisdiction over United States contractors" and contractors’ employees. -- Karzai had also pushed hard for a defense treaty obliging the U.S. to defend Afghanistan militarily against "external aggression," specifically from Pakistan, an erstwhile U.S. ally. The U.S. resisted. Instead, the text of the agreement says the U.S. will view external aggression with "grave concern" and "consult urgently" with Afghanistan. -- Afghan approval of the pact would mean a continued flow of billions of dollars in U.S. military and reconstruction aid. Karzai told the loya jirga that Afghanistan cannot survive without U.S. and international support. -- "If they leave unhappy, that will be harmful to us," he said of departing combat troops. -- In a remark certain to antagonize U.S. commanders, Karzai told the loya jirga: "I ask them to give me fighter jets but they give me helicopters. I ask them to give me tanks but they give me pickup trucks. I don’t want them. I can get them from Japan." -- At one point, Karzai drew ripples of laughter while demanding that the U.S. treat Afghanistan with dignity and respect as an honest partner -- "and bring a lot of money,’’ he added. - More, David Zucchino - latimes