WASHINGTON - The United States is working on a framework for a long-term strategic partnership with Afghanistan, the White House said on Tuesday."We are in the process of working with the Afghan government on the framework of our long-term partnership," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told a news conference.

"The specifics of that are under discussion and I don't have an answer to that specific question about how assistance to the Afghan security forces might continue into the future," added Carney. President Barack Obama, he said, had made it clear at the Lisbon meeting that the US would have a longer-term commitment to Afghanistan, even as they had transferred security control to Afghan forces.

Meanwhile, the US reiterated that the terrorist attacks in Afghanistan on Sunday appeared to bear the hallmarks of the Haqqani network. "We've seen them obviously carry out one last fall that was coordinated in this kind of fashion. But you know, beyond that, we're still in the information-gathering stage," he said.

Responding to questions related to the Haqqani network, US State Department spokesman Mark Toner, said the US has been raising this issue with Pakistan as was noted by the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in Brazil a day before.

"She simply said that when she was in Pakistan, she raised our concerns about the Haqqani network and our concern that this is a shared threat. "We all need to take action against this network. It's a threat to Pakistanis, it's a threat to Afghans and it's a threat to, obviously, Americans living in Afghanistan and elsewhere," Toner said. (Pajhwok)