US President Barack Obama on Tuesday said he will soon make a decision on Iraq and responsibly end the war.

"We are now carefully reviewing our policies in both wars, and I will soon announce a way forward in Iraq that leaves Iraq to its people and responsibly ends this war," Obama told a joint session of the Congress.

He also said he "will forge a new and comprehensive strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan to defeat al Qaida and combat extremism."

"I will not allow terrorists to plot against the American people from safe havens half a world away," he added.

"To overcome extremism, we must also be vigilant in upholding the values our troops defend -- because there is no force in the world more powerful than the example of America," said Obama.

"That is why I have ordered the closing of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, and will seek swift and certain justice for captured terrorists -- because living our values doesn't make us weaker, it makes us safer and it makes us stronger," he added.

"And that is why I can stand here tonight and say without exception or equivocation that the United States of America does not torture," said Obama.

The president also said he will eliminate "the no-bid contracts that have wasted billions of US dollars in Iraq, and reform our defense budget so that we're not paying for Cold War-era weapons systems we don't use."

Earlier in the day, senior administration officials said Obama plans to withdraw most of US troops out of Iraq in less than 19 months, pending a formal announcement later this week.

Except a residual force between 30,000 to 50,000 to be left till Dec. 2011, most of the 142,000 US troops will be out of Iraq by by August 2010, 19 months after Obama's swearing-in on Jan. 20, US TV networks and wire services quoted administration officials as saying.

Obama is meeting with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates at the White House Tuesday afteroon and he is expected to make a formal announcement later this week, probably on Wednesday, they said.

The new withdrawal timetable will be three months later than Obama's originial pledge to pull out most troops in 16 months after his inauguration.

Some 4,250 US troops died and 650 billion US dollars have been spent since the United States invaded Iraq in March 2003.

(Xinhua News Agency February 25, 2009)