Obama gathered top military and political advisors in the secure Situation Room of the White House as part of a weeks-long process that will culminate in a fateful decision on whether to send thousands more US soldiers to war.

Republicans, however, accuse Obama of stalling, and one senior party congressmen Eric Cantor claimed in an interview published Wednesday that White House delays were putting the lives of service personnel at risk.

"I would say this to Congressman Cantor and everybody else: the American people deserve an assessment that's beyond game playing," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

"The men and women in Afghanistan that we've sent to serve and protect our freedom deserve that."

Gibbs accused Cantor, the minority whip in the House of Representatives, of inconsistency, saying he had not made such claims when previous Afghanistan troop requests were pending under ex-president George W. Bush.

"I don't remember him going to a newspaper or on television saying that that commander-in-chief was endangering the lives of men and women in Afghanistan."

Cantor said in an interview with Wednesday's Washington Times newspaper that Obama's "uncertainty" over future war strategy was "troubling."

"Listen, you've got American lives on the line over there," he said. "As long as they are delaying, that puts in jeopardy, I believe, our men and women."

Other Republicans also pushed for a fast decision to send more troops into the conflict.

"Time is not on our side, we need a decision pretty quickly," Senator John McCain, Obama's defeated 2008 election opponent, told ABC News.

McCain said that Obama would put America in "much greater danger" if he decided not to deploy more soldiers.

Obama, meanwhile, launched talks expected to last several hours to begin paving the way for a decision on future strategy in the unpopular eight-year war and subsequent resource decisions.

Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates were the top ranking civilian officials at a session on a war some supporters fear could swamp Obama's presidency.

War commander General Stanley McChrystal, who warned in a leaked report that the conflict could be lost within a year without more troops, was also due to take part by video link-up.

Other top military brass included were General David Petraeus, who heads US central command, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen and Director of National Intelligence Admiral Dennis Blair.

CIA chief Leon Panetta was also expected, along with Richard Holbrooke, the US envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as the US ambassadors to Islamabad and Kabul.

McChrystal has reportedly requested up to 40,000 more US soldiers to fight the Taliban, but Obama is considering whether current tactics are the best way to defeat Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Some experts, however, doubt whether even that kind of deployment will be sufficient to subdue the insurgency. They advocate a narrower strategy of surgical strikes designed to squeeze Al-Qaeda.

Obama's task in building political support for any troop increase is being complicated by the fraud-tainted Afghan presidential election and widespread mistrust in Washington over the government of President Hamid Karzai.

The White House has cautioned it will be "weeks" before the president makes up his mind on a new strategy, arguing he must decide on a war plan before assessing resources needed to carry it out.

The US military has declined to reveal the details of McChrystal's troop request but McCain said in a weekend television interview that the commander had appealed for 30,000-40,000 forces.

Gates has said he will only formally convey McChrystal's request to Obama once the policy review is complete -- and denied any rifts between the Pentagon and some skeptics of troop increases in the White House.

earlier related report
US Congress set for final vote on Pakistan aid
US lawmakers on Wednesday were wrapping up months of debate as they prepare to give the final go-ahead on a plan to dramatically boost aid to Pakistan in a bid to stabilize the Islamic nuclear power.

The House of Representatives opened a session that is expected to approve a bill to triple non-military aid to Pakistan to 1.5 billion dollars per year through 2014, with a special focus on improving schools and infrastructure.

The vote comes shortly after the US military carried out its third strike in 24 hours on Taliban strongholds in northwest Pakistan, in a missile attack that security officials said killed eight militants.

The United States has kept up such attacks despite protests from the Pakistani government, but hopes that the aid package will improve Pakistanis' image of Washington and, in time, reduce the appeal of Islamic extremism.

President Barack Obama, who has made the fight against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan a top priority of his young presidency, has said that the aid package was proof of US support.

"We also face a common threat. The violent extremists within Pakistan pose a threat to the region, to the United States, and to the world. Above all, they threaten the security of the Pakistani people," Obama said last week on the sidelines of the United Nations.

"We believe that hope can triumph over fear, and that adversity can be replaced by opportunity," Obama said, with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari at his side.

The bill to support Pakistan has won broad support in the US Congress, with even critics of Islamabad calling the package an opportunity to strengthen civilian control. Zardari last year ended a decade of military rule.

But the two major US parties initially differed on how many strings to attach to the giant package.

The House of Representatives first approved the bill in June without the support of Republicans, who accused Obama's Democrats of trying to micro-manage the package through onerous conditions.

The House will now vote on a compromise version with the Senate, where the bill was approved unanimously after lawmakers toned down some of the stricter conditions on the aid.

But the bill still insists that Pakistan take action against extremist groups on its soil and not assist them in fighting neighboring countries, namely India.

It specifically lists extremist movements Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed. Lashkar-e-Taiba is blamed for last year's bloodbath in Mumbai that left 166 people dead and more than 300 wounded.

The bill orders the administration to make periodic assessments about whether Pakistan is cooperating in fighting extremism.

It also demands that Pakistan, the only declared nuclear power in the Islamic world, prevent any proliferation of nuclear weapons.

The United States has voiced concern after Pakistan permitted freedom of movement for its key nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, who five years ago admitted leaking nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya.

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