国际英语新闻：Obama says U.S. on track to achieve goals in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday said the United States is on track to achieve its goals in Afghanistan, but the achievements made there are "fragile and reversible."

In releasing the administration's review of his war strategy that saw the deployment of 30,000 additional troops, Obama said the war "continues to be a very difficult endeavor, but ... we are on track to achieve our goals."

Obama said because of the new strategy, senior al-Qaida leadership is now under more pressure than any other time, as more of its senior leaders have been killed, and it was harder for them to travel.

The Afghanistan and Pakistan Annual Review, which offers a national security staff-led assessment of U.S. strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan, reaffirms the strategy's "core goal" to disrupt, dismantle, and eventually defeat al-Qaida in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region and prevent its return to either country.

The terror network led by Osama bin Laden is "hunkered down," Obama said, but at the same time warning "it will take time to ultimately defeat al-Qaida."

Though weakened, al-Qaida remains a threat to the United States and its interests, and Pakistan and Afghanistan continue to be the operational base for the group responsible for the 9/11 attacks, the review's authors wrote.

Obama said he was committed to the beginning of U.S. troops drawdown in July, 2011, but noted for the gains to be sustained over time, "there is an urgent need for political and economic progress in Afghanistan."

In addition to acknowledging the cooperation given by the Afghan and Pakistan governments, including Pakistan's offensives in its tribal regions against extremists, Obama claimed "progress has not come fast enough, so we will continue to insist to Pakistani leaders that terrorist safe havens within their borders must be dealt with."