US president Barack Obama will announce his decision on whether to send more troops to Afghanistan "within days" after he held a final strategy session with top aides, the White House said today.
President Obama's announcement, expected to come in a presidential television address next Tuesday evening, comes after weeks of study that some critics have denounced as "dithering."
Last night, the president held a two-hour meeting in the White House Situation Room with officials including Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defence Secretary Robert Gates. It was their ninth such meeting on the topic.
Mr Obama's decision focuses on whether to add as many as 40,000 troops to an eight-year-old war that began after the September 11th attacks and has begun to try the patience of Americans.
"After completing a rigorous final meeting, President Obama has the information he wants and needs to make his decision and he will announce that decision within days," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement.
A picture of the meeting released by the White House showed budget director Peter Orszag also participated - a sign that the cost of sending more troops is also being discussed.
Mr Obama's announcement was widely expected to come before a Nato meeting on December 7th in Europe in which alliance members could agree to send thousands of additional trainers.
There are about 110,000 foreign troops, including 68,000 US soldiers, in Afghanistan fighting Taliban insurgents.
President Obama has been reviewing war strategy in Afghanistan for the past two months after the top US commander in the country, General Stanley McChrystal, said in a report that conditions were deteriorating and 40,000 additional troops were needed as the minimum to quell the insurgency.
The President's national security advisers, including Mr Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are believed to have rallied around options that would send 30,000 to 40,000 more troops and trainers.
Americans are divided about whether to send more troops. Republicans in Congress insist more troops are needed to prevent a Taliban resurgence, while his fellow Democrats in general would like to see the United States find a way out of Afghanistan.
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Newspoll found last week that 46 per cent of Americans supported a large influx of troops to fight insurgents and train the Afghan military, while 45 per cent backed a smaller number of new US forces more narrowly focused on training.
Mr Obama and his advisers have debated options ranging from sending tens of thousands more troops to limiting troop increases and concentrating on attacking al-Qaeda targets.
Reuters