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As the Obama administration reconsiders its Afghanistan policy, White House officials are minimizing warnings from the intelligence community, the military and the State Department about the risks of adopting a limited strategy focused on al Qaida, U.S. intelligence, diplomatic and military officials told McClatchy.

A recent U.S. intelligence assessment has raised the estimated number of full-time Taliban-led insurgents fighting in Afghanistan to at least 25,000, underscoring how the crisis has worsened even as the U.S. and its allies have beefed up their military forces, a U.S. official said Thursday.

The Afghan government's appointee resigned Monday from the commission that's investigating allegations of fraud in the country's scandal-plagued Aug. 20 presidential election as the Obama administration struggles to craft a strategy to curb the Taliban-led insurgency.

The U.S. military can send only about 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan in the next three months without putting excessive strains on the Army and Marine Corps, but the top Afghanistan commander has said he needs more than twice that number to have the best chance of success, military and administration officials told McClatchy.

An Afghan member of the panel investigating the widespread allegations of fraud in Afghanistan's August 20 presidential election resigned Monday and charged that United Nations officials have interfered in the probe, a possible indication that Afghan Pres. Hamid Karzai may be forced into a runoff against his former foreign minister.

Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday that the U.S. "probably" needs to send more troops to Afghanistan to support the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, which he called a large part of the problem there.

The Obama administration has tried to keep its role in drafting a package of reforms and anti-corruption measures quiet in hopes that the ideas can be presented as an Afghan initiative and boost popular support for President Hamid Karzai. Many officials, however, are skeptical that Karzai will carry out the reforms.

Abdullah Abdullah, the leading challenger in Afghanistan's national elections, warned Monday that if President Hamid Karzai wins another term based on a fraudulent vote, the U.S.-led war against al Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan will fail.

The withdrawal of challenger Abdullah Abdullah from Afghanistan's presidential runoff leaves a major question about the legitimacy of President Hamid Karzai, who is certain to continue in power for five more years. U.S. officials say they will demand that Karzai address the alleged rampant corruption that plagues his government.

President Barack Obama will leave the country for a four-nation tour of Asia starting Wednesday despite a host of domestic concerns, including the massacre at Fort Hood, a sharply rising jobless rate, his health care legislation stalled in the Senate and his Afghanistan troop decision still pending.