Obama to weigh four options in Afghanistan

By Ross Colvin

FORT HOOD, Texas (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama's deliberations over war strategy in Afghanistan have narrowed to four options but a decision is still weeks away, the White House said on Tuesday.

"The president will have an opportunity to discuss four options with his national security team tomorrow," Obama's spokesman, Robert Gibbs, told reporters aboard Air Force One.

He declined to say what they were.

Officials described Wednesday's White House meeting, which will bring together Obama's top military and civilian advisers, as critical to a decision after two months of deliberations.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said Obama was considering options that included sending roughly 15,000, 30,000 or 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan to try to stem Taliban gains.

Currently, there are nearly 68,000 U.S. troops and 40,000 allied forces in Afghanistan.

"Anybody who tells you the president has made a decision ... doesn't have, in all honesty, the slightest idea what they are talking about. The president has yet to make a decision," Gibbs said en route to a memorial service at an Army base in Texas where 13 people were shot dead by a gunman last week.

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