11:39 ET<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nUS President Barack Obama is poised to unveil plans for an initial withdrawal of thousands of US troops from Afghanistan, reports say.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The US currently has about 100,000 troops in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
Within the Obama administration deep divisions remain over the size and speed of the pullout.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
It was the first time the US had acknowledged such contact.<\/p>\n
‘Gains could be threatened’<\/span><\/p>\nMr Obama is expected to make a public speech on Afghanistan on Wednesday, unnamed senior White House officials told US media.<\/p>\n
He will announce he will withdraw as many as 5,000 troops next month, the Associated Press reported.<\/p>\n
Most of the 30,000 additional “surge” troops Mr Obama ordered deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 are to be withdrawn from the country by the end of 2012, CNN reported.<\/p>\n
Under the plan the US military will aims to gradually hand over all security operations to Afghan security forces by 2014.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, Mr Gates said at Nato headquarters that “substantial progress” was being made on the ground in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
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”.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
But some believe security gains mean a more rapid withdrawal of US forces is practical.<\/p>\n
‘Costs outweigh benefits’<\/span><\/p>\nThere is also growing political pressure for a significant withdrawal.<\/p>\n
A bipartisan group of 27 US senators sent Mr Obama a letter last week pressing for a shift in strategy.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
While many Afghans accept that American troops are needed to defeat the Taliban, correspondents say that they resent their presence in the country.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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