Washington, Sep 4 (Xinhua) The US is open to the possibility of sending more troops to the Afghanistan war, where President Barack Obama's government has 'limited time' to show improvement, top defence officials said Thursday.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates told a press conference at Pentagon that he has received the assessment report on the Afghanistan strategy by Army General Stanley A. McChrystal, US top commander in the country, and informally forwarded a copy to President Obama.

'Any request for additional resources would follow' after the evaluation of the report by senior military officials, including Central Commander David Petraeus and Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen, and discussion by the president's national security team, Gate said.

Speculations have been on that McChrystal, who took over the command in June, would ask for more troops and other resources for the eight-year war in view of Taliban's resurgence

However, Gates said that he was 'very open to the recommendations and certainly the perspective of General McChrystal'.

Mullen, who co-host the press conference, said that he and the defence secretary would hold up to four meetings to review the report and expected to finish the process by Friday.