Washington, March 25 (RHC)-- Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has reportedly requested a longer tenure for U.S. troops in Afghanistan during a White House meeting with President Barack Obama on Tuesday.

The U.S. president has vowed to remove half of the 10,000 troops currently in Afghanistan in the coming months, and all but 1,000 by the end of his term in early 2017. But recent reports say the administration is poised to reverse that pledge.

The United States is also pledging to continue funding Afghan security forces at a peak level of 352,000 personnel, at a cost of billions of dollars per year.

The talks come as gunmen in eastern Afghanistan attacked vehicles on a highway, killing 13 people, and as protests have erupted over the mob killing of a woman in the capital Kabul.