WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama will take his time in determining whether to send more troops to Afghanistan, a top White House official says. Obamas national security adviser, Gen (retd) James Jones, told Sundays Washington Post that the President has not set a deadline for making any decisions despite an urgent request by Gen Stanley McChrystal, the US commander in Afghanistan, for between 10,000 and 40,000 more troops. Jones told the Post that while Obama is encouraged by some signs of progress in the war against Taliban insurgents, he is also troubled by the evidence of fraud in the countrys Aug 20 presidential election and remains uncertain of its outcome. Jones said the President is going to meet with his national security team repeatedly this week. I dont have a deadline in my mind, Jones told the newspaper. I think the most important thing is to do it right. But it is going to have a high priority in the administration to do this pretty relentlessly. We have a lot of other things on the table as well. Meanwhile, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates denied that a new review of US strategy in Afghanistan was causing a rift within the Obama Administration. Gates said on ABCs This Week with George Stephanapoulos that the civilian and military leadership all agreed that the idea should be prudently discussed. I think its important to make sure were confident that we have the right strategy in place, and then we can make the decisions on additional forces, said Gates. Gates said the media focus on troop levels led to a misplaced idea that the US was trying to win by escalating the war. He said counterinsurgency strategy requires manpower in the countryside to interact with the population and provide the high-volume of intelligence needed to battle guerrillas. He also said the military, including McChrystal, agreed that a level of debate was desirable and noted that it took three months for the Bush administration to pull the trigger in 2006 on the successful surge in Iraq. Reuters adds: Gates said diplomacy and sanctions rather than military action are the way to persuade Iran to change its nuclear program as divisions emerge in the Iranian leadership. While you dont take options off the table, I think theres still room left for diplomacy, Gates said on CNNs Sunday programme State of the Union. There obviously is the opportunity for severe additional sanctions. I think we have the time to make that work. He said sanctions would prove more effective after deep fissures emerged in Iran since disputed elections in June. Talking to ABC TV, the US Defence Secretary acknowledged that it would be difficult to meet the Obama Administrations Jan 22 deadline for closing the Guantanamo detention camp. Asked about calls by some members of Congress to set a deadline for a US withdrawal, Gates warned any such move would be a strategic mistake. The reality is, failure in Afghanistan would be a huge setback for the US, he said. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States doubts Iran can convince the international community on Thursday that its nuclear programme is peaceful. The chief US diplomat also told CBS television that Iran would not have long hidden its second uranium enrichment plant, which the US and other powers revealed Friday, if it had been for peaceful purposes. She lowered expectations for a meeting on October 1 in Geneva involving Iran, the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany. They (the Iranians) have to come to this meeting on October 1st and present convincing evidence as to the purpose of their nuclear program, she said. We dont believe that they can present convincing evidence that its only for peaceful purposes, but we are going to put them to the test on October 1st, she added in the interview. She said the time for Iranian explanations was over when asked if there is anything they can say to convince the US that their program is for electricity and thereby avoid another round of sanctions.