WASHINGTON, December 1 (RIA Novosti) - U.S. President Barack Obama will not name a specific date to end the transfer of power to Afghanistan's authorities in his address to the nation, a senior administration official said Tuesday.
After several months of consideration, Obama is expected to announce an Afghan troop buildup later on Tuesday.
"What the President will talk about tonight is a date by which he has given the mission that we will begin to transfer our lead responsibility - that is, the U.S. and NATO lead responsibilities from that operation - to Afghan counterparts," the unnamed official said.
"He will not, however, tonight specify the end of that transition process, nor will he specify the pace at which it will proceed. Those variables - pace and end - will be dictated by conditions on the ground," he said.
Asked whether the U.S. would begin the transfer of power in three years, an administration official said: "The three-year figure, in all honesty, is not in the speech."
The official said the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan would "accelerate handing over security responsibilities to the Afghan forces and thus allow the United States to begin to transfer our forces out of Afghanistan beginning in July of 2011."
The White House posted excerpts from Obama's speech, due at 20:00 local time (01:00 GMT Wednesday) in the West Point Military Academy, on its website.
"The 30,000 additional troops that I am announcing tonight will deploy in the first part of 2010 - the fastest pace possible - so that they can target the insurgency and secure key population centers," the draft says.
"They will increase our ability to train competent Afghan Security Forces, and to partner with them so that more Afghans can get into the fight. And they will help create the conditions for the United States to transfer responsibility to the Afghans," it says.
"We will continue to advise and assist Afghanistan's Security Forces to ensure that they can succeed over the long haul. But it will be clear to the Afghan government - and, more importantly, to the Afghan people - that they will ultimately be responsible for their own country," the draft says.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and a separate U.S.-led coalition, involved in Operation Enduring Freedom, have an aggregate 112,000 troops in Afghanistan. The U.S., which has so far contributed the largest number of troops, has some 68,000 troops there.
