US mulls sending more troops to Afghanistan

The Bush administration is reviewing its strategy on Afghanistan and mulling over sending more US troops to combat Taliban insurgents in the central Asian country, the White House said.

The Bush administration is reviewing its strategy on Afghanistan and mulling over sending more US troops to combat Taliban insurgents in the central Asian country, the White House said on Monday.

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The administration will send a strategic review on Afghanistan to president-elect Barack Obama, who will take over next month, in order to "set the new team on a solid footing when it comes to Afghanistan", spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

"In Afghanistan, we do have a challenge. We always knew that it was going to take longer there than it was going to in Iraq to get things done," she said.

"We have been working on our Afghan strategic review. We are nearing conclusion on it. We intend to pass our findings to the new team, as any policy adaptations would take place under their watch," Perino told reporters at the daily press briefing.

"Our intention is to pass it to the next team so that they can then go from there and try to combat the Taliban's resurgence," said Perino, adding, "we'll have more troops continuing to go in."

President-elect Obama has been consistently a critic of the Iraq war, saying it diverts attention from fighting Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

He supports withdrawing all US combat troops within 16 months from Iraq after he takes office and redeploying resources in Afghanistan.

Current President George W Bush will officiate till January 20.