Jones: Obama has no Afghan deadlines

WASHINGTON, Sept. 27 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama will take his time in determining whether to send more troops to Afghanistan, a top White House official says.

Obama's national security adviser, retired Gen. James Jones, told Sunday's Washington Post that the president has not set a deadline for making any decisions despite an urgent request by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, for between 10,000 and 40,000 more troops.

Jones told the Post that while Obama is encouraged by some signs of progress in the war against Taliban insurgents, he is also troubled by the evidence of fraud in the country's Aug. 20 presidential election and remains uncertain of its outcome.

Jones said the president is going to meet with his national security team repeatedly this week.

"I don't have a deadline in my mind," Jones told the newspaper. "I think the most important thing is to do it right. But it is going to have a high priority in the administration to do this pretty relentlessly. We have a lot of other things on the table as well."