President Barack Obama received a request for more troops in Afghanistan last week from the US commander there after asking for the document from the defense secretary,the Pentagon said on Thursday. Obama "has asked for a copy of this,and the (defense) secretary has provided it," press secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters. A "formal request" vetted by the US and NATO military chain of command had not yet been presented to the US president,he said. Defense Secretary Robert Gates had earlier said he would hold off on passing on the request until a White House review of strategy was completed. But Morrell said troop levels were not being discussed yet as top advisers and US military commanders gathered for another pivotal meeting on war strategy. The White House said Obama received the request document on Thursday before setting off for Copenhagen,where he briefly met General Stanley McChrystal,the commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Requests for forces are usually reviewed by senior US military leaders before being passed on to the defense secretary and the president. But in this case,Gates chose to take close control of the request to ensure it was not leaked before Obama had a chance to read it,Morrell said. A previous sensitive document by the commander an assessment of the war - was leaked to the media,piling political pressure on Obama's deliberations. "We wanted to avoid a repeat of what we saw with the assessment frankly," Morrell said.
