Afghan President Hamid Karzai called on tribal leaders assembled for a national conference to help create a fair framework for relations with the US and find a path to peace for the turbulent country.

Karzai spoke at the opening of a “loya jirga,” or grand council, which will discuss a proposed strategic partnership with the United States that would oversee the American military presence here as troops draw down, as well as possible peace talks with the Taliban.

Karzai urged the roughly 2,000 delegates to consider both the need for international help and the need to make sure Afghans are setting the rules in their own country.

“We want to have a strong partnership with the US and NATO, but with conditions,” Karzai said. “We want our national sovereignty, and an end to night raids and to the detention of our countrymen. We don't want parallel structures alongside our government.”

Afghan security forces are on high alert as tribal and political leaders convene in Kabul for four days of talks.

President Hamid Karzai is hosting the loya jirga despite threats by the Taliban to target anyone who attends.

“The loya jirga will discuss mainly two agendas: one will be regarding the strategic partnership deal with US and another [will be] about the peace process,” said Rangeen Dadfar Spanta, Karzai's national security adviser.

The jirga cannot make laws, and whatever it decides has to be approved by parliament.

But diplomats in Kabul say Karzai will use the meeting to secure a strong mandate from the gathering as he pursues a controversial agreement with the US on a strategic partnership to determine Afghan-US relationship after 2014.

The Taliban, who are opposed to the presence of foreign forces, have dismissed the jirga as a ruse to cement what they see as foreign interference and have already tried to disrupt it.

The group on Monday said they had obtained a confidential government security plan for the Jirga.

Roads leading to the hall in which the jirga will be held, near Polytechnic University, about 10km from central Kabul, have been closed to normal traffic.

Dozens of extra Afghan security guards have been patrolling the streets, performing body searches and, in some cases, removing turbans to check for explosives.

Al Jazeera's Bernard Smith, reporting from Kabul, said: “Afghan security have gone to extra lengths to ensure the jirga will go ahead, as a lot of effort has taken place to ensure there are no attacks.”

The jirga is the latest meeting to discuss the future of Afghanistan, after a regional gathering in Istanbul earlier this month and ahead of an international conference in Germany in December.

Loya jirgas, have been called throughout Afghan history to discuss weighty affairs that affect the country's various ethnic groups and tribes.