KABUL - A security pact with the US carries greater importance for Afghanistan than the strategic agreement the two countries inked earlier this year, a senior Karzai administration official said on Sunday.

In an exclusive interview with Pajhwok Afghan News, President Hamid Karzai's chief of staff, Abdul Karim Khurram, said that given the enormous importance of signing a security agreement with the US, the Afghan government "plans elaborate consultations on the subject at institutional and parliamentary levels."

Headed by Eklil Ahmad Hakimi, the Afghan ambassador to Washington, and James Warlick, deputy US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, the talks are slated to begin in Kabul on Nov. 15, the foreign ministry announced on Sunday.

Khurram said Afghanistan would set its conditions for signing the deal after the Obama administration staked out its position.

"In fact, demands of the two countries will become known in the process of negotiations," he said.

A day earlier, some members of the ""'Wolesi Jirga -- or lower house of parliament -- said that the Afghan government should have nominated a senior military officials its chief negotiator instead of the ambassador in Washington.

But Janan Musazai, the foreign ministry spokesman, defended Hakimi's selection, calling him a patriot and an experienced diplomat with 20 years of foreign service experience.

While acknowledging Wolesi Jirga's concern as valid, Khurram dismissed the impression that the government did not take the accord seriously. Given its enormous importance, all Afghans were sensitive about the issue, he remarked.

The legislature has a key role in agreements signed with foreign countries by the government, according to the official, who said: "We have six months for talks on the accord -- a time long enough for consultations with stakeholders. And this could well be extended."

Under the Afghan-US strategic deal signed earlier this year, the security pact has to be concluded within a year, which means September 2013. (Pajhwok)