President Barack Obama on Monday huddled with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and top commander General David Petraeus to discuss the US-led military effort in Afghanistan, the White House said.
The meeting was held "to discuss our ongoing efforts in Afghanistan, including the effectiveness of the military surge, the growth of the Afghan National Security Forces, and President (Hamid) Karzai's expected March 21 announcement on beginning transition to Afghan security lead," the White House statement said.
"They also discussed the plan to begin the reduction of US forces this July, and the path to completing the transition to full Afghan responsibility for security by the end of 2014."
The Oval Office meeting, which was closed to reporters, followed new tensions with Afghan President Hamid Karzai over the accidental killings of civilians by NATO troops.
It also comes one week after Karzai chastised Petraeus, the commander of US and NATO troops in Afghanistan, at a cabinet meeting, saying his apology after nine children were killed in a March 1 NATO air strike was "not enough."
Both Petraeus and Obama have apologized for the incident.
Civilian casualties — especially involving children — are a highly sensitive issue in war-torn Afghanistan, where a Taliban-led insurgency has raged since the Islamists were ousted from power by a US-led 2001 invasion.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said the children were mistaken for rebels.
Officials said Thursday that a Karzai relative was also killed in a separate ISAF raid.
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