US President Barack Obama will decide "fairly soon" on the number of troops to be withdrawn from Afghanistan as part of his plan to reduce in July the American contingency in the country, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Monday.
Obama's current plan calls for some reductions in the number of the roughly 100,000 soldiers this summer, and further withdrawals thereafter will be based on "conditions on the ground," Carney said, dpa reported.
"The president has yet to make a decision on the numbers," he said.
The US-NATO plans call for transferring complete responsibility for security to the Afghan government by the end of 2014. Obama met with his national security team on Monday as part of his regular discussions on progress in Afghanistan.
The New York Times reported Monday that there is a rigorous debate as to whether to bring home larger numbers of soldiers in July than the 3,000 to 5,000 the newspaper said was planned, in part because of the May 1 killing of Osama bin Laden. The New York Times said Obama plans to give a speech on Afghanistan later this month.