The president is said to have focused on preparations for the Nato Lisbon Summit as it related to Afghanistan and ISAF issues to include recent commitments of additional trainers for Afghan National Security Forces, beginning transition of security responsibility to Afghan lead, and developing our long-term partnership with Afghanistan. –Photo by AP

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama met with his top security advisors Wednesday, as he prepares to travel to Lisbon for a Nato meeting expected to formally endorse a plan to hand security duties to Afghan forces by 2014.

The regular monthly White House meeting, which gathers top military and security officials, as well as ambassadors from the region.

Obama “received an update on our progress in disrupting, dismantling, and defeating al Qaeda in the region,” the White House said in a statement.

The president “then focused on preparations for the Nato Lisbon Summit as it related to Afghanistan and ISAF issues to include recent commitments of additional trainers for Afghan National Security Forces, beginning transition of security responsibility to Afghan lead, and developing our long-term partnership with Afghanistan.”

The meeting ended “with a discussion of the progress made at the recent US-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue in working with Pakistan to root out violent extremists and support regional stability,” the White House said.

Obama was set to fly Thursday to the Nato meeting that was expected to deal primarily with Afghanistan.

One year ago, Obama boosted the number of US troops in Afghanistan to 100,000 troops and promised to begin transferring security responsibility to Afghan forces by July 2011.

But the White House this week unveiled a revised plan that would see US troops remain in Afghanistan through at least the end of 2014 — three years past the original drawdown date.

“Based on conditions on the ground, and as a result of the surge in international resources over the last year, it is possible now to begin a responsible transition to Afghan security lead across the 34 provinces in Afghanistan,” White House special assistant for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Doug Lute told reporters on Tuesday.

“This won’t happen overnight, it won’t be a single event, it will be steady, progressive process, that will be carefully monitored by conditions on the ground — both international security forces as well as Afghans will measure progress and determine how and when the transition can take place,” Lute said.

Under the revised plan, US and Nato officials would begin next year handing responsibility for security to Kabul in communities where alliance officials believe Afghan forces are capable of taking control.

“The goal however that President Karzai enunciated and the international community endorsed in Kabul in July, is that this process across the 34 provinces will aim to be completed by the end of 2014,” said Lute.

He added however that “as they stand up, they will not have to stand alone,” and said Nato forces will maintain an “enduring partnership with Afghanistan... that sees sustaining a commitment to the development of Afghan security forces.”

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said “the Lisbon summit will be a demonstration of unity and affirmation of the (four-year transition) strategy that we are pursuing.”

British Foreign Secretary William Hague, who met with Clinton and spoke during a press briefing with her, said the international community can rise to the challenge of the transition.

“We can do that over these next four years. It is a quite long time. That is the length of the entire First World War,” Hague said.