President accuses Washington of 'inconsistent statements and actions' with regard to bilateral security agreement

Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, has suspended talks on a long-term security deal to keep US troops in his country after Nato leaves in 2014, accusing Washington of duplicity in its efforts to start peace talks with the Taliban.

The announcement came the day after the Taliban opened a "political office" in Qatar, saying they wanted to seek a peaceful solution to the war in Afghanistan, and the US announced plans for talks with the insurgent group.

News that American diplomats would sit down with Taliban leaders for the first time since the US helped oust the group from power in 2001 prompted speculation that real progress towards a negotiated end to the war might be in sight.

US officials underlined that they aimed mostly to facilitate talks between Afghans, although they do have issues to tackle directly with the Taliban, including a possible prisoner exchange.

But while the Taliban hinted at meeting US demands of a break with al-Qaida – saying Afghan soil should not be used to harm other countries – there was only the barest of nods to the Afghan government's request that they talk to the current administration and respect the constitution.

Diplomats say Karzai was kept in the loop about plans for the formal opening of a Taliban office in Qatar, but had expected it to be couched differently. After hours of ominous silence, his office issued a terse statement effectively condemning the move.

"In view of the contradiction between acts and the statements made by the United States of America in regard to the peace process, the Afghan government suspended the negotiations, currently underway in Kabul between Afghan and US delegations on the bilateral security agreement," the palace said.

The final straw for Karzai was their display of a white Taliban flag and repeated use of the name "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan", both in their statement and on a printed backdrop used for a televised press conference, according a senior Afghan official.

It was the name the group used when they ruled from Kabul, and together with their official flag gave the group's representatives the air of a government-in-exile as they addressed the media.

The US had pledged the Taliban would only be able to use the office as base for talks, not as a political platform, and Karzai felt the press conference was a clear violation of that promise, an official Afghan source told the Guardian.

The president was also unhappy about the lack of any reference to the country's constitution, which both he and the US say the Taliban must respect.

Instead the statement made more than one reference to the "establishment of an independent Islamic government"; as the group have often denounced Karzai as puppet, that could be read as a call for a change of leader or change of system.

The decision to suspend talks was made after a meeting on Wednesday morning with his national security team and close aides, a source said.

The Afghan government's anger is a blow to hopes that the country's warring factions could be taking the first real steps towards peace; despite US cash and military might, 12 years of fighting have shown it cannot secure the country alone.

In another reminder of the fragile situation in Afghanistan, the Taliban claimed responsibility on Wednesday for an attack on Bagram air base that killed four American troops.

A Taliban spokesman said insurgents fired two rockets into the base outside the Afghan capital, Kabul, late on Tuesday. US officials confirmed the base had come under attack by mortar or rocket and that four troops were killed.

Karzai has long been a strong advocate of peace talks and cautiously welcomed the idea of a base in Doha, while pushing hard for any negotiations to move to Afghanistan as fast as possible.

But he has also drawn clear red lines, one of them being that the Taliban office first mooted in 2011 should not be used as a base for fundraising or building diplomatic relationships.

A source at the High Peace Council, a body created by Karzai to lead government negotiation efforts, said that they were still planning to send a delegation to Qatar, but it was unclear when; and without the support of the Afghan government there is little hope they can make much progress.

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Announcement of talks between the US and the Taliban welcomed by British as foreign troops begin to return home

As Afghan forces officially took over control of security across their country from Nato troops, senior British military officials described an unprecedented operation leading to a virtually invisible "UK footprint" there.

Equipment ranging from heavily-armoured trucks to the brass casing of spent bullets - the market for brass is "extraordinarily good" now, observed a British brigadier - will be returned to the UK by air, road, and rail, at a cost unofficially estimated at between £600m and £2bn.

Brigadier Duncan Capps has been in charge of the project, spending the last six months in

British bases in Lashkar Gar and Camp Bastion in the southern Afghan province of Helmand. "As a logistician", he said, he found "Afghanistan a most difficult place to operate, hot and high, and without a port".

Between now and December next year when all foreign troops will have ended their combat role, British forces will have sent back to the UK 2,700 vehicles by air and other kit by road through Pakistan to the port of Karachi, or north through central Asia by road and rail to Riga, the capital of Latvia on the Baltic, for onward shipment to Southampton.

4,500 containers or TEUs, as the Ministry of Defence calls them (the acronym stands for Twenty Foot Equivalent Units), will be packed with small arms, ammo, quad bikes, and other less valuable kit, and put on trucks.

More than 1,000 TEUs have already been despatched to the UK as have 625 vehicles. The equipment has to be "bio washed" before it enters the UK to meet Department for Environment standards. No "warlike" goods will be sent via the potentially dangerous Pakistani route, Capps said.

The number of patrol bases occupied by British troops has already fallen from 137 at the height of the conflict two years ago, to 13. The number will fall further to just four by end of the year.

The main task for British - and US - troops after 2014 will be to continue mentoring and training Afghan forces. Britain has contributed to an officer training college in Kabul, dubbed a "Sandhurst in the sand". Britain could also maintain a discreet presence of special forces there, as the US is expected to.

Very little will be "gifted" to Afghan forces, Capps said. What will includes beds, night sites, and mine detecting equipment. Capps suggested that expensive kit, including armoured vehicles paid for by British taxpayers will be sent home in what conditions he described as "theatre-exit standard", ready for storage and for use in any new emergency.

The number of British troops in Helmand, currently about 9,000, is due to fall to 5,200 by the end of this year.

Tuesday's announcement of talks between the US and the Taliban will be welcomed by British troops. General Sir Peter Wall, the head of the army, said last year referring to the prospect then of such talks: "The real fixes are at the political level...progress in this domain is vital if we are to achieve a soft landing by 2014".

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'We have kept to our timetable', says Nato chief, but it is thought little will change for foreign soldiers on the ground this week

Afghan forces have officially taken control of security across their country, but the showpiece ceremony was more political theatre than military handover.

A suicide attack on a top politician in the centre of Kabul, barely an hour before the transfer of power from Nato troops, underlined the challenges the still-growing Afghan army and police force face in holding off a tenacious and battle-hardened Taliban.

The formal transfer was hailed by western officials and the Afghan government as a significant moment for a country that has seen soldiers from 50 nations trooping across its soil over the last decade. The handover covered the most challenging areas of the country, the final stage in a rolling process which started in 2011.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai described the handover as a "historic moment" at a ceremony in a military university that five years ago was an empty stretch of land laced with mines – a potent reminder of how fast the force has grown since the Nato-led coalition stepped up efforts to train Afghan troops in 2009.

But nothing will change for foreign soldiers on the ground this week, senior officials have admitted. Karzai's announcement is more a statement of intent to change that fits political agendas at home and overseas.

Karzai, whose advocacy of Afghan sovereignty has been as strong as his opponents' accusations that he is a puppet ruler, has long pushed for the departure of foreign forces – though he is equally strident in his demands that the west continue to arm and pay his country's forces.

"To have Afghan forces in command of themselves … This has been one of my greatest desires, and pursuits," he told journalists after announcing the security shift. "I am glad that I, as an Afghan citizen and Afghan president, have reached this objective today."

Western leaders, whose voters are weary of the human and financial costs of the war, are also keen to wind down their mission in Afghanistan.

At a Nato summit in Chicago last year the two sides agreed that this "milestone" would happen by mid-2013, regardless of conditions on the ground, and at the start of this year Karzai and US President Barack Obama agreed to bring forward the handover to spring. Summer officially begins in under a week.

"It has been tough. We have faced up to many challenges. And no doubt there will be more. We have kept to our roadmap. And we have kept to our timetable," said Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

"Today, our shared goal is in sight."

The speeches underlined how keen both sides are to show progress, sometimes glossing over difficult realities on the ground.

"This ceremony changes nothing on the battlefield," said Graeme Smith, Afghanistan analyst with International Crisis Group. "However, it sends a sharp message to Afghan forces that they must survive largely on their own as the international troops withdraw. Their ability to stand their ground will be sorely tested as we get deeper into this summer's fighting season, and nobody knows for certain how they will fare."

Foreigners will still have to provide helicopters and planes, healthcare and bomb disposal teams, intelligence, heavy artillery and logistics support, because Afghan forces are still desperately short in these areas.

Foreign troops will still be fighting on the ground in some areas for several months at least, and they will almost certainly continue to die in painful numbers in Afghanistan. Coalition casualties have tumbled, but 86 men and women have lost their lives this year.

And that reduction has come at a cost to the Afghan military and police. In the last Afghan year – which runs from March to March – nearly 1,200 died in battle. The figure for this year is expected to be even higher.

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