US President Barack Obama and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai agreed Friday that Afghan troops would take full control of security in the country by the spring, with international forces moving into a supporting role, DPA reported.
"Starting this spring our troops will have a different mission, training, advising, and assisting Afghan forces," Obama said in a joint press conference with Karzai in the White House.
The move comes ahead of the mid-2013 goal agreed at the NATO summit in Chicago last year.