Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday called on Pakistan's incoming government to help negotiate an end to the Taliban insurgency that has ravaged his country for nearly 12 years.

Taliban militants use Pakistan's border areas as a refuge to launch attacks across Afghanistan's south and east, and elements of the Pakistani state are accused of providing tacit support for the Islamist extremists.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai vowed Thursday to wring concessions from the United States in negotiations to sign a security pact, saying Washington wanted to retain nine military bases in the country.

After more than 11 years of U.S.-led military intervention in Afghanistan, the two countries are hammering out a deal to allow a limited U.S. troop presence to remain after the international coalition leaves next year.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai confirmed Monday that his office has received money from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency over the past decade, with wads of cash reportedly handed over in suitcases and backpacks.

Karzai thanked the U.S. spy agency for what he said was money well spent just hours after The New York Times reported that Karzai's office received tens of millions of dollars in cash in a CIA effort to win influence.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has ordered a crackdown on "un-Islamic and obscene" televisions shows in response to lobbying by the country's religious council, an official said Wednesday.

Karzai told the culture ministry to block programs "which are vulgar, un-Islamic, obscene and violate social morality, and Islamic morality", according to a statement from his Council of Ministers.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai held talks Sunday with the emir of Qatar during a visit to discuss opening a Taliban office in the Gulf state, as a prelude to a possible peace deal with the militants.

Karzai discussed "issues of mutual interest" with Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, state news agency QNA said, without giving details of the low-profile meeting in Doha city.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai traveled to Qatar on Saturday to discuss Taliban militants opening an office in the Gulf state for peace talks that could end more than a decade of war.

Until earlier this year, Karzai was opposed to the Islamist extremists having a meeting venue in Qatar as he feared that his government would be frozen out of any negotiations.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met again Tuesday with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, a day after they put on a show of unity as they tried to end recent bickering over anti-American comments made by the Afghan leader.

Kerry also met Tuesday at the American Embassy in Kabul with participants in a U.S.-backed women's entrepreneurship program. He heard a succession of concerns from businesswomen fearful of what the 2014 transition will mean for not only for women and girls but for Afghanistan's commerce in general.

A group of seven suicide bombers attacked a police base in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad on Tuesday, killing five officers, police said.

One bomber set off a large explosion at the entrance of the quick reaction police headquarters before two bombers blew themselves up inside the facility and four others died in a gun fight with police.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry landed in Afghanistan on Monday on an unannounced visit, with relations badly frayed by Kabul's recent hostility to U.S.-led military efforts in the country.

Kerry is likely to face a testing meeting with President Hamid Karzai who has launched a series of verbal assaults on U.S. troops and their coalition partners.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday claimed victory in his latest dispute with the U.S. after accusing its special forces of abusing civilians in the key strategic province of Wardak.

Karzai had demanded that the elite U.S. units leave the province, just outside Kabul. On Wednesday, a deal was stuck in which Afghan forces will take responsibility for security in Nerkh, one of Wardak's eight districts.