Obama: No quick decision on troops in Afghanistan

US President Barack Obama said there will be no quick decision on whether to send more US troops into the war in Afghanistan.

"My determination is to get this right," he said.

On Tuesday, Admiral Mike Mullen, Mr Obama's top military adviser as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, endorsed an increase in US forces as probably necessary to battle a deepening insurgency.

The US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, has also delivered a grim assessment of the war and is expected to follow up soon with a request for thousands of additional troops.

"I'm going to take a very deliberate process in making those decisions," said Mr Obama.

"And so I just want to be absolutely clear, because there's been a lot of discussion in the press about this: There is no immediate decision pending on resources."

The president already has ordered 21,000 more troops to Afghanistan, increasing the US commitment there to 68,000 by the year's end. Yet violence in Afghanistan has soared to record levels. More US troops - 51 - died in Afghanistan in August than in any other month since the invasion in October 2001.

Mr Obama faces mounting pressure on what do next, both from an anxious and war-weary public and from members of his own Democratic Party. He said he will follow his plan of doing a broad assessment of military, diplomatic, civilian and developmental efforts in Afghanistan before deciding his next steps.

"One of the things that I'm absolutely clear about is you have to get the strategy right and then make determinations about resources," Mr Obama said.

"You don't make determinations about resources - certainly you don't make determinations about sending your men and women into battle - without having absolute clarity about what the strategy is going to be."