US troops in Afghanistan. – File Photo by AP

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama will soon make a decision on drawdown of troops from Afghanistan, the White House said on Tuesday.

A day before the meeting, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton telephoned Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and discussed the situation with him. “The president received an update on our efforts to ensure effective cooperation with Pakistan against Al Qaeda and other violent extremists,” said a White House statement.

Vice-President Joe Biden, Secretary Clinton, the CIA chief, US ambassadors in Kabul and Islamabad and other senior officials attended the meeting. Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Commander of the US and allied troops in Afghanistan, Gen David Petraeus, participated via video conferencing. Secretary Gates has been urging a slowed-down withdrawal from Afghanistan, while Vice-President Biden and some other officials favour a substantial drawdown of troops to begin soon.

A Pentagon press release issued in Washington on Tuesday showed that while the Obama administration expedites its contacts with Taliban leaders to probe a possible reconciliation, US military leaders prefer dealing a decisive blow to the insurgents before sitting with them to seek a negotiated settlement to the Afghan conflict.

“I leave Afghanistan today with the belief that if we keep this momentum up, we will deliver a decisive blow to the enemy and turn the corner on this conflict,” the press release quoted Secretary Gates as saying.

At the White House, Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters that while President Obama was ready to make a decision on a pledged drawdown of troops from Afghanistan, he has not yet received recommendations from Gen Petraeus.

The drawdown of troops “will obviously be a decision he makes relatively soon in keeping with the commitment he made when he announced his Af-Pak strategy back in December of 2009, that a drawdown would begin in July of 2011,” Mr Carney said.

President Obama is yet to decide how many troops he will call back from Afghanistan.

“We have always said that it would be real. There were sceptics who suggested at the time when the president announced his policy that the July 2011 date for the beginning of a drawdown was not real. It will, in fact, begin then,” he said.

Earlier, at the Afghan-Pakistan situation room meeting, Secretary Gates briefed President Obama on his recent trip to Afghanistan.

“The group also discussed our strategic partnership with Afghanistan and the progress being made to build and sustain the Afghan National Security Forces and the president's upcoming videoconference with President Karzai on Wednesday,” the White House said.

Meanwhile, a poll conducted last week shows that 43 per cent of Americans say the war is worth fighting, compared with 31 per cent in March. But a majority of Americans still say the war, which is in its 10th year, is not worth fighting, despite Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden's elimination.