US President Barack Obama has still not decided whether to follow his Afghan military commander's advice to dispatch more troops to Afghanistan.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal wants at least 40,000 more US forces, although NATO defense ministers admitted on October 23 in a meeting in Bratislava, Slovakia that their operation in Afghanistan has been a failure.

On Monday, after his latest Afghan war council met for the sixth time, Obama, speaking to US Navy personnel in Jacksonville, Florida, said he would not "rush" a decision on whether to send tens of thousands of more troops to Afghanistan. "I will never rush the solemn decision of sending you into harm's way," Obama said.

Even members of Obama's own Democratic Party are divided over whether to send more troops.

The eight-year conflict in Afghanistan has brought no results for NATO, which leads a force of some 70,000 troops drawn from 43 nations in a country wracked by more than 30 years of war.

A new Afghan strategy is still weeks away, the White House said the same day.

FTP/HGL