**US President Barack Obama has said it is his intention to “finish the job” in Afghanistan after eight years of conflict there.**Mr Obama said he would announce a long-awaited decision over sending more troops to Afghanistan “shortly”.
Some US media reports have suggested that the US president is intending to send 34,000 more troops.
He has been weighing a request from his top commander in Afghanistan for 40,000 more US troops to aid the war effort.
Mr Obama said an ongoing review of US policy in Afghanistan had been “extremely useful”, stressing that it was in the US strategic interest to make sure al-Qaeda cannot operate in the area.
“After eight years, some of those years in which we did not have, I think, either the resources or the strategy to get the job done, it is my intention to finish the job,” he said.
Speaking at a press conference with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he added that the Afghan people were “going to have to provide ultimately for their own security”.