US President Barack Obama said Wednesday the US was not planning to quicken the pace of the drawdown of its forces in Afghanistan, as renewed questions about the mission there have arisen in the wake of a shooting of 16 Afghan civilians allegedly by a rogue US soldier, dpa reported.
"In terms of pace, I don't anticipate at this stage that we're going to be making any sudden additional changes to the plan that we currently have," Obama said after meetings at the White House with British premier David Cameron.
Despite recent developments, the US and its allies are committed to having enough forces in the region during the upcoming fighting season and to fulfilling the mission of defeating al-Qaeda and allowing the Afghans to take over their own security, Obama said.
"After the fighting season, in conjunction with all our allies, we will continue to look at how do we effectuate this transition in a way that doesn't result in a steep cliff at the end of the 2014 but rather is a gradual pace that accommodates the developing capacities of the Afghan national security forces," he said.