President Barack Obama today ordered an interagency review to examine US policy on Afghanistan and Pakistan before a Nato summit in April, the White House said.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer who is now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington would head the review.
Mr Riedel would look at both military and non-military aspects of US policy in the region and would report directly to Mr Obama and his national security adviser, Jim Jones, Mr Gibbs told reporters aboard a flight to Florida with Obama.
He said the panel would be co-chaired by Richard Holbrooke, the president's newly named special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Michele Flournoy, co-founder of the Center for a New American Security, who was confirmed on Monday as undersecretary of Defense for policy.
Mr Obama told a news conference at the White House yesterday the United States would need a broader approach to be successful in resolving the conflict in Afghanistan.
"We are going to need more effective, co-ordination of our military efforts with diplomatic efforts, with development efforts, with more effective coordination with our allies in order for us to be successful," Mr Obama said.
Mr Holbrooke is in the region looking at ways to turn back the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, defeat al-Qaeda and make sure neither Pakistan nor Afghanistan is used as a base for followers of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Reuters