Obama ‘to announce Afghan plan’

US President Barack Obama is poised to unveil plans for an initial withdrawal of thousands of US troops from Afghanistan, reports say.

Mr Obama will use a speech on Wednesday to confirm that 30,000 “surge” troops will begin heading home in July – with most gone by 2013, US media report.

The US currently has about 100,000 troops in Afghanistan.

Within the Obama administration deep divisions remain over the size and speed of the pullout.

Reports of Mr Obama’s announcement comes after departing US Defence Secretary Robert Gates confirmed that the US was holding “outreach” talks with members of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

It was the first time the US had acknowledged such contact.

‘Gains could be threatened’

Mr Obama is expected to make a public speech on Afghanistan on Wednesday, unnamed senior White House officials told US media.

He will announce he will withdraw as many as 5,000 troops next month, the Associated Press reported.

Most of the 30,000 additional “surge” troops Mr Obama ordered deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 are to be withdrawn from the country by the end of 2012, CNN reported.

Under the plan the US military will aims to gradually hand over all security operations to Afghan security forces by 2014.

US military leaders are thought to favour a very gradual reduction in troops but other advisers advocate a more significant decrease in the coming months.

Earlier this month, Mr Gates said at Nato headquarters that “substantial progress” was being made on the ground in Afghanistan.

But he argued that “these gains could be threatened if we do not proceed with the transition to Afghan security lead in a deliberate, organised and co-ordinated manner”.

“Even as the United States begins to draw down in the next month, I assured my fellow ministers there will be no rush to the exits on our part.”

But some believe security gains mean a more rapid withdrawal of US forces is practical.

‘Costs outweigh benefits’

There is also growing political pressure for a significant withdrawal.

A bipartisan group of 27 US senators sent Mr Obama a letter last week pressing for a shift in strategy.

“Given our successes, it is the right moment to initiate a sizable and sustained reduction in forces, with the goal of steadily redeploying all regular combat troops,” the senators wrote. “The costs of prolonging the war far outweigh the benefits.”

While many Afghans accept that American troops are needed to defeat the Taliban, correspondents say that they resent their presence in the country.

The war is in its 10th year, civilian casualties are at an all-time high, and correspondents say the population has grown weary of the fighting. Insurgents are to blame for most of the deaths, but killings by foreign troops generate widespread outrage.