Book tells of Obama's Afghan wrangles

The book Obama's Wars by journalist Bob Woodward, says Obama aides were deeply divided over the war in Afghanistan even as the president agreed to triple troop levels there.

Mr Obama's top White House adviser on Afghanistan and his special envoy for the region are described as believing the strategy would not work.

According to the book, Mr Obama said: "I have two years with the public on this," and pressed advisers for ways to avoid a big escalation in the Afghanistan war.

"I want an exit strategy," he said at one meeting. Privately, he told Vice President Joe Biden to push his alternative strategy opposing a big troop build-up in meetings.

While Mr Obama ultimately rejected the alternative plan, the book says, he set a withdrawal timetable because "I can't lose the whole Democratic Party".

Mr Obama was among administration officials that Woodward interviewed for the book.

Although the internal divisions described by Mr Woodward have become public, the book suggests that they were even more intense than previously known.

Later a White House official said that the president was accurately portrayed in the book as an analytical, strategic, and decisive leader.

The official said the book did not reveal anything new about the US strategy in Afghanistan, nor should it be a surprise that there was vigorous debate within the administration.

Meanwhile, a US official in Washington confirmed Mr Woodward's report that the CIA is running an all-Afghan paramilitary group in Afghanistan that has been hunting Taliban and al Qaida targets for the agency.

A security professional in Kabul familiar with the operation said the 3,000-strong force was set up in 2002 to capture targets for CIA interrogation.