TROOPS ARRIVING: Newly-arrived troops of the U.S. Army 5/2 ID Stryker Brigade Combat Team load their bags onto a truck at Kandahar military base on October 3, 2009. (Romeo Gacad/AFP/Getty Images)
The request, which General Stanley McChrystal submitted to Defense Secretary Robert Gates last month, recommends adding up to 40,000 additional U.S. and NATO troops next year, according to congressional officials.
Obama, who has launched a review of his six-month-old counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan, has not decided on whether to send more troops as recommended by McChrystal to try to reverse gains by a resurgent Taliban, officials said.
Sending as many as 40,000 additional troops to Afghanistan could spark a backlash within the president's own Democratic Party. U.S. and NATO casualties have risen, and public support for the eight-year-old war has eroded.
"The president requested it, the secretary provided it to him as well as to the principals, and now it is working its way up the formal chain of command, here and in NATO," Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters.
He described the request, which Gates gave to Obama late last week, as "informal" because it had yet to work its way through the chain of command, a process that allows for "vetting" and comments from commanders.
Morrell said Obama asked for a copy of the troop request because "he wanted to read this over the weekend."
Morrell said it remained unclear when McChrystal's request would be discussed as part of the White House review of its strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
TROOPS LEAVING: U.S. Army soldiers carry the flag-draped transfer case containing the remains of U.S. Army Sergeant Vernon W. Martin of Savannah, Georgia, out of a C-17 at Dover Air Force Base October 6, 2009. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
'A Range of Options'
A meeting was scheduled for later on Wednesday focusing on Pakistan. Another meeting on Friday is expected to deal primarily with Afghanistan."This is a more analytical document, as it's been described to me, which would offer a range of options but would ultimately provide one recommendation," Morrell said of McChrystal's troop request.
SEEKS MORE TROOPS: ISAF Commander General Stanley A. McChrystal (L) meets with high ranking military personnel October 7, 2009 at the forward operating base (FOB) Walton, outside of Kandahar, Afghanistan. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)
"If the decisions that are made in the coming weeks are different from that, there can be adjustments made to the request," he said.
The Pentagon says Gates, who could sway Obama in favor of sending more troops, has yet to decide on whether they are needed.
But Gates publicly has said that many of his earlier reservations about adding forces have been addressed, and he remains a strong proponent of a counter-insurgency strategy -- signals that he may be leaning toward a further buildup.
