Afghan President Hamid Karzai has ordered that all interrogation facilities should be equipped with video cameras in a bid to prevent torture, after a recent U.N. report said detainees were abused.

The decree follows a government investigation into the U.N. report about prisoner abuse, which found detainees were tortured at the time of arrest and during interrogations.

Afghan president Hamid Karzai has summoned the new commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan over an air strike that allegedly killed ten civilians, according to a statement issued Thursday.

General Joseph Dunford, who took over from General John Allen on Sunday, was called in "for explanations" to the Afghan presidential palace following the air strike in the insurgency-plagued Kunar province a day earlier.

U.S. General Joseph Dunford assumed command of NATO forces in Afghanistan on Sunday, taking over from General John Allen as the coalition prepares to withdraw the bulk of combat troops by next year.

Marine general Dunford will likely be the last commander of the United States' longest war, tasked with bringing forces home after more than 11 years and overseeing the transfer of Afghan security duties to local forces.

A U.N. committee has expressed "alarm" over reports that hundreds of children have been killed by U.S. military forces in Afghanistan in the past five years.

The Geneva-based Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) said the deaths were "due notably to reported lack of precautionary measures and indiscriminate use of force".

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai confirmed Tuesday in Oslo that he plans to step down next year when his mandate expires.

"The question of me staying as the president beyond 2014 is out of the question," Karzai said when reporters asked about recent speculation that he was keen to stay on.

The leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan said on Monday they would work to reach a peace deal within six months, while throwing their weight behind moves for the Taliban to open an office in Doha.

Following talks hosted by British Prime Minister David Cameron, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari also urged the Islamists to join the reconciliation process in Afghanistan.

British Prime Minister David Cameron will meet the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan this weekend as part of moves to prevent a Taliban resurgence when foreign troops leave, Downing Street said Saturday.

The premier will dine with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari at his country retreat Chequers in Buckinghamshire, southeast England, on Sunday.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai Tuesday accused foreign countries of plotting against his war-weary nation's peace program, saying all negotiations should take place under his administration.

Without pointing a finger at any particular country, Karzai said he had told the U.S. government during a recent visit to Washington that "no foreign party must try to take the Afghan peace process in its hand".

A real peace process in Afghanistan has not begun and the United States does not know what has happened to Taliban prisoners released by Pakistan, the U.S. ambassador to Kabul said Thursday.

Pakistan said 26 prisoners were freed late last year in a bid to kick-start peace talks ahead of the withdrawal of U.S.-led NATO troops from Afghanistan, whose government is under pressure from an 11-year Taliban insurgency.

President Barack Obama has promised to speed up a transfer of lead security responsibility from NATO to Afghan forces this spring, in a sign the pace of U.S. troop withdrawals could quicken.

After meeting Afghan President Hamid Karzai Friday, Obama said NATO forces would have a "very limited" role in the country after 2014 and insisted that Washington had achieved its prime goal of "decapitating" Al-Qaida.