Obama will outline details in a televised address at 8pm EST on Wednesday [0100 GMT on Thursday].
The president has reportedly been considering several options, all of which deal specifically with the 30,000 "surge" troops dispatched to Afghanistan last year.
One proposal, endorsed by generals at the Pentagon, would remove 5,000 of those troops this summer, with another 5,000 to be withdrawn in six months. The remainder would stay in Afghanistan until late 2012.
A second option would withdraw 15,000 troops this year, while a third would simply set an endpoint, requiring the surge troops to be removed by December 2012 but allowing military commanders to decide the pace of the withdrawal.
Regardless of which plan Obama chooses, all 30,000 "surge" troops will almost certainly be withdrawn by the end of 2012.
More than 68,000 US troops will remain in Afghanistan, likely through 2014.
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