President Barack Obama's decision to bring 33,000 US surge troops home from Afghanistan by next summer was welcomed by allies on Thursday but dismissed by Taliban insurgents who vowed to fight on.

Insisting that US and allied troops had made progress in rolling back the Islamist insurgency and vowing to turn to nation building at home, Obama on Wednesday announced the beginning of the end of the nearly decade-long war.

"The tide of war is receding," Obama said in a 13-minute prime time speech addressed to an American public increasingly fatigued from costly foreign wars and weighed down with economic insecurity.

"Even as there will be dark days ahead in Afghanistan, the light of a secure peace can be seen in the distance. These long wars will come to a responsible end," Obama said.

The president argued US forces had made large strides towards the objectives of the troop surge strategy he ordered in December 2009 by reversing Taliban momentum, crushing Al-Qaeda and training new Afghan forces.

But he ultimately rejected appeals from the Pentagon for a slower drawdown to safeguard gains against the Taliban, and his decision will be seen as a political defeat for the US commander in Afghanistan General David Petraeus.

The president said he would, as promised, begin the US withdrawal this July and that 10,000 of the more than 30,000 troops he committed to the escalation of the conflict would be home this year.

A further 23,000 surge troops will be withdrawn by next summer, and more yet-to-be announced drawdowns will continue, until Afghan forces assume security responsibility in 2014.

Critics had warned that such a move would embolden the still-formidable Taliban, which dismissed the withdrawal as a "symbolic step."

In an emailed statement, they stressed that "the solution for the Afghan crisis lies in the full withdrawal of all foreign troops immediately" -- and that "our armed struggle will increase" until that happens.

More than 1,600 US soldiers have died in Afghanistan since the invasion after the September 11, 2001 attacks, including at least 187 this year alone.

Despite Pentagon appeals for a more modest drawdown, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the plan provides "enough resources, time and, perhaps most importantly, flexibility to bring the surge to a successful conclusion."

The president spoke against the backdrop of growing domestic questioning of the purpose of the war, especially following the killing of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden last month.

Obama expressed support for fragile Afghan reconciliation talks with the Taliban, saying they could make progress "in part because of our military effort."

But despite the drawdowns, there will still be more than 65,000 troops in Afghanistan when Obama seeks a second term in November 2012 elections.

Turning to Al-Qaeda, Obama said documents seized from bin Laden's compound in Pakistan showed the organization was under "enormous strain."

One official said the US operation against Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan's tribal regions had "exceeded our expectations," saying 20 of the group's top 30 leaders had been killed in the last year.

With US-Pakistan ties still raw after the bin Laden raid, Obama said he would insist Islamabad keep its commitments to fight the "cancer" of violent extremism.

Obama's plans drew a mixed reaction.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the partial withdrawal was a "natural result" of progress on the ground.

"We can see the tide is turning. The Taliban are under pressure. The Afghan security forces are getting stronger every day. And the transition to Afghan security lead is on track to be completed in 2014," he added.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai also welcomed the announcement, as did US allies Germany and France, which said they would embark on similar withdrawals.

But hawkish Republican Senator John McCain said Obama was taking an "unnecessary risk" and noted Petraeus and Gates had recommended a slower withdrawal.

Presidential candidate Mitt Romney meanwhile suggested Obama's motivation was political, saying: "We all want our troops to come home as soon as possible, but we shouldn't adhere to an arbitrary timetable."

Obama placed the Afghan mission in the context of his wider foreign policy and war strategy, arguing he has drawn down 100,000 troops from Iraq and will oversee a full withdrawal by the end of this year.

He also said a NATO summit to review progress on Afghanistan will take place in Chicago in May 2012, alongside the G8 summit of industrialized nations.

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