Obama to announce Afghan plan over coming weeks

Nov 18, 2009, 16:32 GMT

Washington - US President Barack Obama said Wednesday that he will announce his revised strategy for the war in Afghanistan in the 'next several weeks.'

Obama has been holding high-level meetings with his war council in the last two months to map out a new strategy, including whether to send as many as 40,000 additional troops into the conflict.

'I'm confident that at the end of this process, I'm going to be able to present to the American people in very clear terms what exactly is at stake, what we intend to do, how we're going to succeed, how much it's going to cost, how long it's going to take,' Obama told NBC.

Obama gave a series of interviews to US broadcasters while travelling in Asia. He told CNN that his goal is to conclude the war in Afghanistan by the end of his presidency.

'My preference would be not to hand off anything to the next president,' said Obama, who faces re-election in 2012. 'One of the things I would like is the next president to be able to come in and say I have a clean slate.'

The security situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated sharply in the last two years as the Taliban has regained its stronghold in numerous regions, aided by the perception of a weak and corrupt central government in Kabul under President Hamid Karzai, who is to be sworn in for second term on Thursday.

Obama has demanded that Karzai act against the widespread corruption in his government, a message likely to be carried by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Clinton arrived in Kabul on Wednesday to attend the inauguration.

There are currently about 68,000 US troops in Afghanistan as part of the US-NATO presence. The top commander, General Stanley McChrystal, has requested another 40,000.