The Afghan government will on Monday assume control over Bagram prison despite a last minute row with America over delays in handing over prisoners and how much control the United States military will keep over inmates.











By Ben Farmer, Kabul



4:34PM BST 09 Sep 2012













Kabul is hailing the ceremonial handover of the prison, which holds thousands of men accused of being insurgents, as a victory for Afghan sovereignty.





But Afghan officials confirmed they had clashed with American commanders and diplomats over delays in handing over some 600 of the nearly 3,000 inmates.





The prospect of America running a prison on Afghan soil was one of the most contentious obstacles to signing a long term strategic pact between the nations.





The deadlock was broken in March when the allies signed a memorandum of understanding laying out a six month handover process.





A spokesman for the Nato-led coalition confirmed that 600 prisoners taken since March had not yet been handed over.







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Their transfer had been halted because of concerns the Afghan government was not keeping its side of the deal.



Jamie Graybeal said: "Because discussions continue I cannot comment further than to say we have paused the transfer of the remaining detainees until our concerns are met regarding the intentions of the Afghan government to fulfil the terms of the memorandum."



After what a palace aide described as a "difficult" weekend meeting between the sides, Mr Karzai issued a statement declaring "the prison is now supposed to be transferred to Afghan government and thus any delay in its handover is considered a breach of the Afghan national sovereignty".



America will also continue to hold around 50 inmates from countries outside Afghanistan, most of them from Pakistan.