Pictures of US troops abusing corpses, on top of a series of outrages this year, have fueled anti-US anger in Afghanistan, with the president calling Thursday for an early exit of foreign forces.

"The only way to put an end to such painful experiences is through an accelerated and full transition of security responsibilities to Afghan forces," his office said in a statement.

NATO has some 130,000 US-led troops helping Karzai's government fight a Taliban insurgency, but they are progressively handing over to Afghan forces ahead of a scheduled pull out by the end of 2014.

Updated plans for the withdrawal will be discussed at a NATO summit in Chicago next month, with polls showing Karzai's call for an early exit is shared by citizens of troop-contributing nations.

In moves unlikely to go down well with his allies, Karzai has already accused NATO this week of failures that allowed the Taliban to launch major attacks in Kabul and has demanded the US "write down" that it will commit at least $2 billion a year to Afghanistan's security after 2014.

On Thursday he condemned the pictures of US troops as "inhumane and provocative", noting similar incidents in the past had sparked an angry reaction by Afghans.

Pictures published by the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday showed US soldiers posing with the remains of Taliban insurgents, one of them with a man's hand draped over his shoulder.

"It is such a disgusting act to take photos with body parts and then share it with others," Karzai said.

Every month this year a fresh scandal has rocked the alliance between the US and the Karzai government in their joint efforts against Taliban insurgents.

In January, a video showed US Marines urinating on Taliban corpses; in February US soldiers burned copies of the Koran; and in March one US soldier went on the rampage and murdered 17 villagers in their homes.

The Taliban were also quick to condemn the photographs of US soldiers posing with the body parts of militants, calling the two-year-old pictures "inhuman" and vowing revenge.

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said those responsible would be punished but voiced "regret" that the LA Times had decided to publish the images against his wishes, warning they could prompt a violent backlash.

But the biggest victim of the latest scandal is likely to be support for the NATO troops in their own countries.

"In the West there was this strong idea that of course the troops came to fight terrorism but also came to help and to rebuild the country," said Martine van Bijlert of the Afghan Analysts' Network.

"Incidents like this will feed into feelings at home of 'What are we doing here?'," she told AFP.

For the Afghans, "it does confirm how people increasingly feel about the international and US troops -- that they don't really care about us (and) they don't treat us with respect."

"The US soldiers who posed for pictures with the Afghan insurgents show that they didn't come to Afghanistan to deliver services for us," said Obaidullah, 20, an unemployed high-school graduate in Kabul.

"Instead such actions will force Afghans to rise against them."

But an immediate violent response by ordinary Afghans was seen as unlikely.

"We have had too many of these incidents recently where there's been questions about US troops' morality and ethics... but it doesn't necessarily mean we will see riots on the streets," said Candace Rondeaux of the International Crisis Group.

"However, time will tell -- I think we have to wait until after Friday prayers to really see what kind of impact these images have had," she said, referring to the time of the week when citizens pour out of mosques.

Incidents such as the massacre, the Koran burning and the desecration of bodies raised questions about US President Barack Obama's "initial claims that this was the just war, this was the necessary war", she said.

But "there will always be incidents when violence in the extreme is encountered on both sides, whether it is in this case (US) soldiers desecrating bodies or in another other case Taliban soldiers taking pictures of beheadings.

"This is just a natural part of war."

Karzai calls for early transition after US scandal
Kabul (AFP) April 19, 2012 - Afghan President Hamid Karzai called Thursday for an "accelerated" transition of security responsibilities from NATO forces in the wake of a scandal over US troops abusing Afghan corpses.

"The only way to put an end to such painful experiences is through an accelerated and full transition of security responsibilities to Afghan forces," his office said in a statement.

Pictures published by the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday showed US soldiers posing with the remains of Taliban insurgents, one of them with a man's hand draped over his shoulder.

Karzai condemned the pictures as "inhumane and provocative", adding: "It is such a disgusting act to take photos with body parts and then share it with others."

The president noted that similar incidents in the past had sparked an angry reaction by Afghans.

Every month this year a fresh scandal has rocked the alliance between the US and the Karzai government in their joint efforts against Taliban insurgents.

In January, a video showed US Marines urinating on Taliban corpses; in February US soldiers burned copies of the Koran; and in March a US soldier went on the rampage and murdered 17 villagers in their homes.

NATO has some 130,000 troops in Afghanistan helping Karzai's government fight the Taliban insurgency, but they are due to pull out by the end of 2014 and hand responsibility for the nation's security to Afghan forces.

Plans for the withdrawal will be discussed at a NATO summit in Chicago in May, with the 10-year war increasingly unpopular among troop-contributing nations.

The Taliban were also quick to condemn the photographs of US soldiers posing with the remains of militants, calling the two-year-old pictures "inhuman" and vowing revenge.

The Taliban "strongly condemns the brutal and inhuman act by the American invading force and their uncultured slaves", they said in a statement.

In some of the pictures Afghan police are also seen with their US allies posing with the mangled remains of Taliban suicide bombers.

"This is what the invading Americans teach to their Afghan slaves," the statement said, referring to the members of the Afghan security forces trained and funded by the US-led troops.

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said those responsible would be punished but voiced "regret" that the LA Times had decided to publish the images against his wishes, warning that they could prompt a violent backlash.

The LA Times published two of 18 photographs it was given by a soldier who believed they pointed to a breakdown in leadership and discipline that compromised the safety of the troops.

One showed a soldier with a dead insurgent's hand draped on his right shoulder. The other showed soldiers grinning and giving a thumbs-up behind the disembodied legs of a Taliban fighter.

The incident took place in February 2010, when paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division's 4th Brigade Combat Team were sent to an Afghan police station in Zabul province to inspect the remains of an alleged suicide bomber.

The soldiers had orders to try to get fingerprints and possibly scan the irises of the corpse, but instead they posed for pictures next to the Afghan police, holding up or squatting beside the remains, the LA Times reported.