Afghan President Hamid Karzai hinted Tuesday that his government would be flexible in negotiating "sensitive" issues in a new security pact with the United States.

Karzai did not spell out what issues he was referring to, but one of the most sensitive questions involves immunity from local prosecution for U.S. troops remaining in Afghanistan after NATO forces withdraw in 2014.

President Hamid Karzai has accused the United States of breaching an agreement to transfer more than 3,000 detainees at a controversial prison north of Kabul to Afghan control.

Kabul had hailed the transfer of Bagram prison, sometimes called the Guantanamo Bay of Afghanistan, as a victory for national sovereignty as NATO prepares to hand over security to Afghans and withdraw its combat troops by the end of 2014.

A roadside bomb killed 10 civilians, including women and a child, heading for a wedding party in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, officials said.

"Ten civilians, including four women and a child were killed in a roadside bomb attack as they were going to attend a wedding party in Musa Qala district of Helmand province," the provincial governor's spokesman Ahmad Zeerak told Agence France Presse.

The Taliban and other insurgent leaders could stand as candidates in Afghanistan's next presidential election, to be held in April 2014, the country's top poll official said Wednesday.

President Hamid Karzai, who is serving his second term as leader of the war-torn nation, is constitutionally barred from running in the election and no clear candidate to succeed him has yet emerged.

Afghanistan's presidential election will be held on April 5, 2014, months ahead of the final withdrawal of NATO combat troops from the insurgency-plagued nation, a poll official said on Tuesday.

President Hamid Karzai, who is serving his second term, is constitutionally barred from running in the election and has been under pressure from opposition groups to announce the date.

The withdrawal of French combat troops from Afghanistan will happen "a bit more quickly than anticipated" and could be completed before the end of December, France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Saturday.

Fabius was interviewed by French television BFM about the troop withdrawal while on a visit to Kabul.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has warned of possible problems ahead over the sensitive issue of immunity from prosecution for any American or NATO soldiers deployed in the country after 2014.

The U.S.-led NATO force of more than 100,000 troops is due to end combat operations at the end of that year, but thousands of soldiers are expected to remain in Afghanistan to train and assist Afghan forces.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Thursday he hoped the shooting of a Pakistani schoolgirl by the Taliban would convince Islamabad that using extremism as a tool against others was not in its interest.

Karzai regularly accuses Pakistan of supporting Taliban Islamist insurgents trying to topple his government -- a charge Islamabad denies.

President Barack Obama's deputy national security advisor was in Baghdad this week for talks with Iraqi leaders on issues including the spillover from the unrest in Syria, the White House said Wednesday.

Dennis McDonough met Monday with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, the speaker of Iraq's parliament as well other top officials, said National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor.

NATO defense ministers meet Tuesday to review the alliance's costly commitments, most notably in Afghanistan, as slowing Western economies seriously undercut defense spending.

Afghanistan is the major talking point, to be taken up on Wednesday, officials said, with the alliance soon to start planning for its new training, advice and assistance mission after the 2014 withdrawal of combat troops.