Kabul - Afghan President Hamid Karzai discussed Washington's revised war strategy for Afghanistan with his US counterpart Barack Obama on Tuesday, the presidential palace said in a statement. During an hour-long video conference, the two leaders discussed the main points of the new strategy, including military, political and security issues, Karzai's office said.
After more than three months of meetings with advisors to weigh options for stepping up the fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan, Obama is scheduled to unveil the revised strategy in a national address Tuesday night.
As part of conversations with the main players in the Afghanistan issue, Obama has also spoken with French and Russian presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and Dmitry Medvedev, Danish Prime Minister Lars Rasmussen and Britain's Gordon Brown, a White House spokesman said Monday.
Obama is also scheduled to call the leaders of Pakistan, India, Germany, China and Poland to discuss the revised strategy before his national address.
As the main part of the strategy, Obama is expected to announce the deployment of around 30,000 troops in addition to the 68,000 US soldiers already stationed in Afghanistan. More than 40,000 troops deployed from other NATO and non-NATO nations are also based in the war-torn country.
In his speech, the US president is also expected to provide a broad approach to the conflict that includes setting goals for the buildup of Afghan security forces.
Afghan officials recently said that the country needs 400,000 personnel in its security forces - double the current total - to independently provide security for Afghanistan.
Mounting deaths among NATO troops and lack of public support in western countries are forcing the alliance's leaders, including Obama, to consider an exit strategy and to limit the length of their military stay in Afghanistan.
A total of 485 troops, including nearly 300 US soldiers, have lost their lives in Afghanistan so far this year, according to ICasualties.org.
The White House said on Monday that the president would make it clear that the US military commitment to Afghanistan will not be "open ended."
