WH: Afghan troop decision weeks away

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By Lara Jakes ASSOCIATED PRESS

President Obama is still weeks away from deciding whether to send more troops to Afghanistan, the White House said Sunday amid pressure from lawmakers to settle on a war strategy despite muddled politics and concerns of corruption in Kabul.

Top White House advisers said Mr. Obama's painstaking review, ongoing since early September, would not be hampered by Sunday's announcement from the top challenger in the Afghan presidential runoff election that he would withdraw from a race he was likely to lose.

"I expect the president will make a decision within weeks," senior Obama adviser David Axelrod said. "As you know, he has gone through a very rigorous process because the goal here is not just to make an arithmetic judgment about the number of troops, but to make sure that we have the right strategy."

Mr. Axelrod said former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah's decision to withdraw means that Afghan President Hamid Karzai all but certainly will remain in power.

"We are going to deal with the government that is there," Mr. Axelrod said, "and obviously there are issues we need to discuss, such as reducing the high level of corruption. These are issues we'll take up with President Karzai."

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, traveling in Morocco, said the U.S. will support the next president and the people of Afghanistan, "who seek and deserve a better future."

She said in a statement that Mr. Abdullah ran "a dignified and constructive campaign" that won the backing of many in his country. "It is now a matter for the Afghan authorities to decide on a way ahead that brings this electoral process to a conclusion in line with the Afghan constitution," according to a statement released by the State Department.

The runoff was scheduled in wake of widespread claims of election fraud from the August vote. The Obama administration planned to wait until after the runoff before deciding whether to continue targeting the Taliban in Afghanistan with more U.S. forces or focus on eliminating al Qaeda and other terrorists with unmanned spy planes in Pakistan.

Before Mr. Obama left the White House to campaign for Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine in New Jersey on Sunday, he spoke with his national security adviser by telephone. White House spokesman Ben LaBolt told reporters aboard Air Force One that James L, Jones, assistant to the president for national security affairs, updated Mr. Obama on the situation in Afghanistan and that Mr. Jones had spoken with the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry.

About 68,000 American troops already have been ordered to report to Afghanistan by the end of the year.