The Obama administration is ramping up pressure on Afghan President Hamid Karzai to sign a deal to keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan beyond this year. In a phone call with Karzai Tuesday, Obama said he has ordered the Pentagon to launch new contingency planning for a total withdrawal of U.S. troops by the end of 2014. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Karzai’s replacement after April elections might sign the deal, known as the bilateral security agreement, or BSA.

Jay Carney: “The fact that President Karzai has indicated that it is unlikely he will sign the BSA means that if he doesn’t sign it, it is at least possible that a successor Afghan government might sign it. But that pushes us later into the year. And the longer we go without a signed BSA, the — by necessity, the more narrow in size and ambition the mission for a post-2014 force would be.”

The remarks come as NATO defense ministers are meeting in Brussels this week to discuss Afghanistan.