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US President Barack Obama speaks during joint statement to media with Chinese President Hu Jintao at Great Hall of the People in Beijing, 17 Nov 2009

President Barack Obama says he will announce his highly anticipated decision on U.S. strategy in Afghanistan over the next several weeks. The president says the decision will put the United States and its NATO allies on a path toward winning the war.

During his visit to Beijing Wednesday, President Obama told NBC television his long-awaited decision on Afghanistan will address every aspect of U.S. strategy in the war.

“I am confident that at the end of this process I am going to be able to present to the American people, in very clear terms, what exactly is at stake, what we intend to do, how we are going to succeed, how much it is going to cost, how long it is going to take,” he said.

The president said he wants to ensure that when U.S. forces eventually finish their mission, they will leave behind a stable Afghanistan.

“Creating a situation in which our footprint is smaller and Afghan security forces can do the job of keeping their country together,” he said. “They are not there yet. They need help from us, and that is exactly what our strategy is going to be designed to do.”

A new Quinnipiac University poll shows that Americans’ support for the war in Afghanistan continues to slip. Of the voters questioned in the past week, 48 percent said fighting the war is the right thing to do, down from 52 percent in early October.

Mr. Obama’s overall job approval rating has dipped below 50 percent for the first time in his presidency, to 48 percent.

In the NBC interview, the president also defended Attorney General Eric Holder’s recent decision to prosecute Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the man accused of plotting the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and four co-conspirators in a federal civilian court in New York City.

U.S. President Barack Obama says his administration is presenting “very clear benchmarks” for the Afghan government to secure the war-torn country.

Mr. Obama did not elaborate on those measures during an interview with CNN, saying only that the U.S. has a vital interest in making sure that Afghanistan is “sufficiently stable.”

The president has promised a decision soon on if or how he will reinforce the nearly 68,000 U.S. troops fighting militants in Afghanistan.

The United States says it is dismayed that Israel has authorized the
construction of new housing units in occupied east Jerusalem.

A Palestinian boy in the yard of his house in front of a new housing development in east Jerusalem’s Jewish Har Homa neighborhood, 21 Sep 2009

Israel has approved construction of 900 new units in mostly
Arab east Jerusalem despite objections by the United States and the
Palestinians.

Speaking to reporters at the U.S. State
Department, spokesman Ian Kelly says the Obama administration is deeply
disappointed by the Israeli decision.

“We
believe that neither party should engage in any kind of actions that
could unilaterally preempt or appear to preempt negotiations. I think
that we find the Jerusalem planning committee’s decision to move
forward on the approval process for the expansion of Gilo in Jerusalem
as dismaying,” said Kelly.

U.S.
officials have put pressure on the Israeli government to halt
construction of settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Israel annexed east Jerusalem following the 1967 Middle East war in a move that is not recognized internationally.

Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas says peace talks cannot resume until Israel
freezes building in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

So far, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has only offered a limited reduction in new building.

Kelly says the latest move hurts U.S. efforts to get both sides back to the negotiating table.

“This
is at a time when we are working to relaunch negotiations and we
believe that these actions make it more difficult for our efforts to
succeed. So we object to this and we object to other Israeli practices
in Jerusalem related to housing, including the continuing pattern of
evictions and demolitions of Palestinian homes,” Kelly said.

About 180,000 Israelis live in Jewish settlements built around east Jerusalem.

Israel insists east Jerusalem is part of Israel and rejects efforts to restrict building there.

Palestinians want east Jerusalem to be the capital of a future state they hope to establish in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

U.S. policy says the status of Jerusalem must be resolved through negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians.