Obama Won't Get Troop Request Just Yet

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon says the official request from Gen. Stanley McChrystal for more troops for Afghanistan won't be sent to the White House until next week at the earliest.

A spokesman says a decision is not imminent.

Obama will be deciding whether to stick with the current mission in Afghanistan, or scale back the military option and instead expand operations targeting terrorists in Pakistan. Staying with the current mission could require adding as many as 40,000 more U.S. troops.

Obama met with McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, for 25 minutes today aboard Air Force One before the president returned home from Denmark.

It was the third conversation between them since McChrystal disclosed in a TV interview that aired Sunday that he'd spoken with Obama only once since taking over the U.S. military efforts in Afghanistan. Obama chose him for that task in May.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)