US President Barack Obama will brief Prime Minister Manmohan Singh along with other world leaders by tomorrow on his new Af-Pak policy that is expected to cover sending thousands of more troops to fight Taliban insurgency and outline an exit strategy.
Obama's call to Singh will take place close on the heels of the two leaders' meeting in Washington during which the Afghan issue was discussed prominently.
Singh had said it was important for all major regional and international players to put their weight behind the Afghan government.
Obama had highlighted the importance of tackling violence and extremism emanating from the region "in a serious way".
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the President would be making several calls to world leaders today and tomorrow to brief them on the issue.
Besides Singh, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, Chinese President Hu Jintao, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk are among the leaders Obama will call.
Obama has already spoken to French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen on his Af-Pak policy.
Obama has maintained that it was important to recognise that the Afghan people ultimately will have to provide for their own security.
Obama's new approach is likely to focus on ensuring that the Taliban is prevented from holding control on the Afghan government and from providing safe haven to extremists to plot terrorist activities.
At his press briefing, Gibbs said the new Af-Pak policy would come with an exit strategy and "not an open-ended commitment".
"Ultimately, the strategy will be to transfer the security responsibility of an area to the Afghans. That is a big part of what you'll hear the President talk about".
More than 1,00,000 US and NATO troops are in Afghanistan, and the president is expected to announce the addition of over 30,000 more US troops to support the war effort.
The additional troops will bolster the already 68,000 US troops positioned along the Pakistan border and in the south, where the fighting is the most fierce.
A key element of Obama's new strategy will be diplomatic engagement with Pakistan to jointly address violent extremism.
"I think you can anticipate that a good portion of the President's speech tomorrow (Tuesday) will discuss our relationship with Pakistan and touch on going back to the very beginning of this administration in a renewed engagement diplomatically with the Pakistanis to jointly address violent extremism," Gibbs said.
The strategy reveiw comes amidst a growing war weariness among Americans the cost of sending 10,000 troops estimated at $10 billion a year.
