In unveiling plans to send reinforcements, Obama vowed that the US military would begin pulling out of Afghanistan by July 2011 -- a move that Republican lawmakers say risked playing into the hands of Islamist militants.

Defending his decision, Obama said in a speech that "the absence of a timeframe for transition would deny us any sense of urgency in working with the Afghan government."

"It must be clear that Afghans will have to take responsibility for their security, and that America has no interest in fighting an endless war in Afghanistan," he said at the West Point military academy.

Under pressure from his own party and a skeptical public, Obama is walking a fine line as he tries to sell his troop surge, knowing that Afghan and Pakistani leaders and Taliban insurgents will be listening closely to every word, analysts said.

"He's got to assure Democrats in his own party that this is not an endless commitment to a quagmire on the other side of the world," Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer, told AFP.

Republicans in Congress have already castigated the president for taking three months to review the strategy and warned that setting a timeline for withdrawal would signal surrender.

"The way that you win wars is to break the enemy's will, not to announce dates that you are leaving," Senator John McCain said on Tuesday. "The exit strategy should be dictated by conditions on the ground."

By setting a date to begin pulling out troops in 2011, Obama's announcement appeared to contradict comments from his own defense secretary, Robert Gates, who had recently rejected the idea of a timeline for handing over security duties to Afghan forces.

"I think I would rather have those on the ground in Afghanistan make the judgment call about when a province or a district was ready to be turned over, rather than specific dates," Gates said last month.

In his speech, Obama offered praise for Pakistan's offensive against Taliban militants inside its borders and offered to keep up support for Islamabad "long after the guns have fallen silent."

But it was unclear if Obama's promises would be enough to allay concerns in Islamabad, where officials view Washington as an unreliable partner that abandoned Afghanistan after the Cold War.

"I think the Pakistanis have always felt that America will sooner or later cut and run," said Riedel, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. "They're convinced it's only a matter of time."

Obama has to find a way to make clear the United States will stay engaged in Afghanistan -- including training local security forces -- but that its military commitment has limits, analysts said.

"There's an inherent tension there," said Stephen Biddle of the Council on Foreign Relations.

"It's impossible, impractical and ill-advised to try to adopt a strategy to convince South Asians we will stay as long as needed," he said.

As "grand strategist and chief," a US president has to ensure that his war strategy enjoys public support at home, including members of Congress who have the power to block funding for the mission, Biddle said.

Obama's predecessor took a similar gamble when he opted for a "surge" of US troops in Iraq in 2007, but George W. Bush resisted talk of "off-ramps" to allow American forces an early exit.

By then, Bush did not face re-election as he was in his second term, and had lost public support over the war as well as the support of US allies.

Obama has more at stake and he wants "to try to keep the American people on board for this," Riedel said.

The president's speech will need to be followed up with a sustained effort to explain and justify the mission, Biddle said.

"He can't give a speech and consider that box checked," he said. "This war is doing to be controversial for a long time."

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