Days before Afghan president Hamid Karzai is scheduled to meet with President Barack Obama, senior administration officials said the White House will not rule out removing all troops from Afghanistan later than 2014 – when the U.S. combat mission expires.

Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, told reporters on a conference call Tuesday that the administration would consider a "zero option" because "the U.S. does not have an inherent objective of X number of troops in Afghanistan."

President Obama has reportedly received several proposals for residual troop levels beyond 2014, but this was the White House’s most explicit acknowledgement that it would consider leaving no U.S. troops in support roles in Afghanistan after the end of combat operations.

The White House has previously expressed a preference for a light operational footprint. Press secretary Jay Carney said on Nov. 26^th that the post-2014 American presence would be “very limited in scope.”

White House South Asia advisor Doug Lute said decisions on troop levels would be determined by the atmosphere on the ground, and how well-equipped Afghans are to defend themselves.

"If the Afghan capacity continues on positive glide path and we reach our goals in terms of the development of the army, the police, then you can imagine they require less support,” he said.

The announcement comes on the heels of a scheduled meeting between President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Karzai’s visit, which will include a bilateral meeting, working lunch and joint press conference, will not end with the pronouncement of a final troop level, although that will be among the issues the two leaders discuss, Rhodes said.

“The two leaders will be discussing any potential support for Afghanistan from the United States beyond 2014,” he said, adding that a bilateral security agreement should be finalized by November 2013.  

SPOKANE, Wash. – Newt Gingrich criticized the Obama administration for apologizing to Afghan leaders after Qurans were burned at a military base.

“The president apologized for the burning, but I haven't seen the president demand that the government of Afghanistan apologize for the killing of two young Americans,” Gingrich told roughly 500 people at the Bing Crosby Theater here Thursday.

The Afghans, Gingrich believes, "do not deserve the apology of the United States” after an Afghan soldier shot two American troops at a protest that followed the desecration of the holy books.

“If Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan, doesn't feel like apologizing, then we should say ‘goodbye and good luck.’ We don't need to be here risking our lives and wasting our money on somebody who doesn't care,” the former House speaker said.

Karzai’s office said Thursday that it wants NATO to put on trial those who burned the holy books.

The demonstrations began three days ago after people witnessed copies of the Muslim holy book being burned in a garbage pile at Bagram Air Field. Military officials said the burning was a mistake. The apology from the Obama administration came after the two Americans were killed.

Gingrich has been unrelenting in criticizing Barack Obama’s foreign policies. At his campaign event in Spokane, Gingrich called him “the greatest national security disaster that we've had in my lifetime."