Obama, Karzai push post-2014 vision of Afghanistan

President Obama and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai met Sunday at the NATO summit in Chicago to discuss the transition of power in Afghanistan.

By NBC News and news services

Updated 1:57 p.m. ET: CHICAGO -- President Barack Obama on Sunday pressed world leaders to help implement a strategy for post-2014 Afghanistan after U.S. troops leave, a transition that Afghan President Hamid Karzai said will mark the day that his war-torn country is "no longer a burden" on the rest of the?world.

Obama and Karzai met on the sidelines of the NATO summit on Sunday to discuss Afghanistan's post-conflict future. After the meeting, Obama told reporters that the two-day summit would focus on Afghanistan's move to peace and stability after a decade of war.

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"The loss of life continues.? There will be hard days ahead.? But we're confident that we're on the right track and what this?NATO summit reflects is that world is behind strategy we've laid out," Obama said.

Standing next to Obama, Karzai reaffirmed his commitment to the transition timetable?process, which he said will lead to a time when Afghanistan "is no longer a burden on the shoulder of our friends in the international community, on the shoulders of the United States and other allies."

Karzai also thanked Americans for the help that their "taxpayer money" has done in?Afghanistan.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

President Barack Obama, right, shakes hands with with Afghan President Hamid Karzai during their meeting at the NATO summit in Chicago on Sunday.

"Afghanistan is fully aware of the task ahead and of what Afghanistan needs to do to reach the objectives that we all have of a stable, peaceful and self-reliant Afghanistan," he said.

Jason Reed / Reuters

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen speaks to the media at the start of the NATO summit on Sunday.

Earlier, a top NATO official?insisted?that the Afghanistan fighting coalition will remain whole despite France's plans to yank combat troops out early.

"There will be no rush for the exits," NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said. "We will stay committed and see it through to a successful end. Our goal, our strategy, our timetable remain unchanged."

Obama later opened the summit by telling world leaders: "For over 65 years our alliance has been the bedrock of our common security, our freedom and our prosperty, and although times have changed the reasons for our alliance has not."

NATO leaders gathered in Chicago to chart a path out of Afghanistan as war-weary Western nations seek to fend off dissent in their alliance and ensure Afghanistan can hold a still-potent Taliban at bay when foreign troops withdraw.

Obama was hosting the two-day summit in his hometown, a day after leaders of major industrialized nations tackled Europe's debt crisis, backing keeping Greece in the euro zone and vowing to take steps necessary to revitalize the world economy.

Public opinion in Europe and the United States is solidly against the war, with a majority of Americans now saying it is unwinnable or not worth continuing.

Newly elected French President Francois Hollande has said he will withdraw all French combat troops from Afghanistan by year's end ? a full two years before the timeline agreed to by nations in the U.S.-led NATO coalition.

"President Hollande has stated that France would be prepared to support Afghanistan in a different way," Rasmussen said.

But signaling tensions over the issue, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters: "We went into Afghanistan together, we want to leave Afghanistan together."

Hollande repeated a pledge during his inaugural visit to Washington last week to pull "combat troops" from Afghanistan this year. He has said an extremely limited number of soldiers would remain to train Afghan forces and bring back equipment beyond 2012.

"This decision is an act of sovereignty and must be done in good coordination with our allies and partners," said Hollande, who was?to discuss his exit plans with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday.

Information from The Associated Press and Reuters?is included in?this report.

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