'NATO set to withdraw troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014'

Rasmussen announced the decision at a news conference on Friday after NATO's defense ministers resumed their talks at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels.

But French President Nicolas Sarkozy had earlier announced that French troops will pull out a year before then.

However, Rasmussen insisted that the handover of combat roles to local Afghan forces would depend on the security situation on the ground.

The NATO ministers convened on Thursday to discuss major changes to the war strategy in Afghanistan during the two-day meeting.

The talks have also been discussing how to pay a yearly 4.5 billion euros for Afghanistan's security forces once they take over from the alliance in 2014.

It is unlikely a final decision will emerge before NATO's summit in Chicago in May, while austerity budget cuts in a crisis-hit eurozone have made it difficult to reach agreement on future funding.

In 2001, the United States led an invasion of Afghanistan under the pretext of removing Taliban militants from power.

Insecurity, however, continues to rise across Afghanistan despite the presence thousands of US-led troops in the war-weary nation.

Meanwhile, a recent NATO report leaked to the media suggested that Afghan militants are confident they can defeat the coalition.