The regular monthly White House meeting, which gathers top military and security officials, as well as ambassadors from the region, comes as Obama prepares to fly Thursday for NATO meetings that were expected to deal primarily with Afghanistan.

One year ago, Obama boosted the number of US troops in Afghanistan to 100,000 troops and promised to begin transferring security responsibility to Afghan forces by July 2011.

But the White House this week unveiled a revised plan that would see US troops remain in Afghanistan through at least the end of 2014 -- three years past the original drawdown date.

"Based on conditions on the ground, and as a result of the surge in international resources over the last year, it is possible now to begin a responsible transition to Afghan security lead across the 34 provinces in Afghanistan," White House special assistant for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Doug Lute told reporters.

"This won't happen overnight, it won't be a single event, it will be steady, progressive process, that will be carefully monitored by conditions on the ground -- both international security forces as well as Afghans will measure progress and determine how and when the transition can take place," Lute said.

Under the revised plan, US and NATO officials would begin next year handing responsibility for security to Kabul in communities where alliance officials officials believe Afghan forces are capable of taking control.

"The goal however that President (Hamid) Karzai enunciated and the international community endorsed in Kabul in July, is that this process across the 34 provinces will aim to be completed by the end of 2014," said Lute.

He added however that "as they stand up, they will not have to stand alone," and said NATO forces will maintain an "enduring partnership with Afghanistan... that sees sustaining a commitment to the development of Afghan security forces."

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said "the Lisbon summit will be a demonstration of unity and affirmation of the (four-year transition) strategy that we are pursuing."

British Foreign Secretary William Hague, who met with Clinton and spoke during a press briefing with her, said the international community can rise to the challenge of the transition.

"We can do that over these next four years. It is a quite long time. That is the length of the entire First World War," Hague said.

Meanwhile, the outspoken Afghan president over the weekend ruffled feathers in Washington, when he warned warned in a newspaper interview that the US military must scale back its presence in his country and reduce night raids or risk fueling the Taliban insurgency.

Karzai's criticism appeared to reject the US military's strategy and put him at odds with commanders, but Gates said the comments conveyed the frustrations of a nation that has been in a state of war for decades.

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