* US still poised to start withdrawing troops in July 2011
* Review finds Taliban momentum arrested in many areas
* Skeptics question progress on governance, corruption
* Clinton calls review "clear-eyed and realistic" (Updates with fresh quotes from Gates, Clinton, adds details)
By Missy Ryan and Ross Colvin
WASHINGTON, Dec 16 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama offered Americans an optimistic assessment of the Afghanistan war on Thursday, even as U.S. spy agencies and aid groups express doubts about the progress amid worsening violence.
Obama, under pressure to show results after criticizing his predecessor George W. Bush for neglecting the war, said the United States was on track to start pulling out troops next July as planned.
His defense secretary, Robert Gates, said it was too early to say how quickly troops would be withdrawn, but Washington hoped to accelerate the drawdown as more progress was made. Obama wants to end the U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan and transition to full Afghan security control by 2014.
A five-page unclassified summary of the White House review said U.S. and NATO forces had made "notable operational gains," halting the Taliban's momentum in many areas and disrupting al Qaeda. But it said the gains were fragile and reversible and that major challenges remained.
It reported substantial but uneven progress in the U.S. relationship with Pakistan, whose lawless tribal areas are widely seen as the main obstacle to Obama's strategy succeeding because of the relatively free flow of militants across the border into Afghanistan.
"I want to be clear, this continues to be a very difficult endeavor," Obama said at the White House on Thursday, a year after he ordered 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. But, he added, "We're on track to achieve our goals."
<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Full coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan [ID:nAFPAK]
Highlights of the review [ID:nN16115504]
Analysis of political implications [ID:nN14278974]
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>
The review comes at the end of the bloodiest year since U.S.-backed Afghan forces ousted the Taliban as the country's rulers in 2001, with almost 700 foreign troops killed so far. At least 477 of them were Americans. Yet Afghan civilians bear the brunt of the conflict as insurgents expand from strongholds into once-peaceful areas in the north and west.
On Thursday, a roadside bomb killed 14 civilians in western Afghanistan and four Afghan soldiers died in a U.S. air strike overnight. [ID:nSGE6BF086]
There were no surprises in the summary, whose conclusions had been well-telegraphed by U.S. officials in the lead-up to Thursday, and it included no supporting data for its cautiously positive findings.
KARZAI NOT MENTIONED
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Obama's key ally in the war, did not rate a mention in the document. The two men have had sometimes-tense relations and critics accuse Karzai of failing to clamp down on corruption and improve governance.
The upbeat public assessment of the war by U.S. military officials and the White House is not shared by America's intelligence agencies and aid agencies working in Afghanistan.
U.S. spy agencies have given the White House a more pessimistic assessment of the counter-insurgency strategy. Two officials told Reuters the agencies believe long-term progress in Afghanistan will remain difficult until Pakistan takes firmer action against militants on the border.
"Buried in the summary is the acknowledgment of two significant challenges for the stabilization effort: the continuing Taliban sanctuaries in Pakistan and the poor quality of governance in Afghanistan," said Vanda Felbab-Brown, an analyst at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington.
"In fact, both issues remain enormous obstacles for success," she said.
Aid groups including the International Committee of the Red Cross expect violence in Afghanistan to worsen next year, making it harder to reach people in need. [ID:nSGE6BE0C4]
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dismissed suggestions that the Obama administration was presenting an overly rosy view of the war.
"I think we're clear-eyed and realistic," she said.
Obama's renewed commitment to begin withdrawing troops in July 2011 may help to appease the left wing of his Democratic Party and others weary of nine years of war.
His decision to stay the course in Afghanistan poses little political risk for him now. There is scant public debate on the war, with Americans distracted by anemic economic growth and high unemployment.
That could change in the coming months, however, if violence continues to worsen, U.S. casualties mount and the U.S. economy stays in the doldrums, drawing closer scrutiny of the costs of the ${esc.dollar}113 billion-a-year war.
Democratic lawmakers are already questioning Obama's strategy for sustaining the gains over the long term and preventing al Qaeda from re-establishing Afghan havens.
In the absence of major strides by Afghan forces -- growing rapidly in numbers but still learning to shoot and in many cases to read -- gains "cannot be maintained without continued U.S. involvement, both military and financial," said Caroline Wadhams, an expert at the Center for American Progress think tank in Washington.
U.S. forces invaded Afghanistan in 2001 following the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States to topple the Taliban rulers who had harbored al Qaeda leaders responsible for the attacks.
(Writing by Missy Ryan and Ross Colvin; additional reporting by Steve Holland, Matt Spetalnick, Caren Bohan, David Morgan and Mark Hosenball in Washington, Mohammed Abbas in London, Matt Spetalnick in Washington, Paul Tait in Kabul and Chris Allbritton and Augustine Anthony in Islamabad; Editing by Will Dunham)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
