The Obama administration has begun to lower expectations of a significant withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan in July and warned European allies against pulling out their forces too soon. Speaking at a meeting of the 48 countries contributing troops to Afghanistan, the US defence secretary, Robert Gates, expressed concern that some European countries were talking too much about leaving rather than finishing the job. Gates, who was in Afghanistan earlier this week as part of an assessment of how many US troops could be withdrawn in July, said he was worried that security gains in Afghanistan "could be threatened by ill-timed, precipitous or unco-ordinated national drawdown" by countries contributing troops. When Barack Obama announced in December 2009 an increase in the number of US troops in Afghanistan from 70,000 to 100,000, he wrung a promise from the Pentagon that a withdrawal would begin in July this year. Facing an election next year for a second presidential term, there was an expectation he would seek a headline-grabbing figure such as 20,000 to signal to the American public that the exit was in sight.