"I have not gotten a sense from my conversations with people that any basic decisions or basic changes are likely to occur" in the review, Gates told a news conference.

"I suspect that we will find some areas where we can make some adjustments and tweaks to try and enhance what's going on now," he said.

The remarks by the influential defense secretary offered the latest sign that President Barack Obama intends to stick to his war strategy, despite rising casualties and declining public support for the nine-year-old conflict.

Obama has ordered an assessment of the war effort in December, which will mark a year since he unveiled a new approach backed up by a surge of 30,000 additional US troops.

The NATO alliance is also due to examine war strategy at a summit in Lisbon in November.

The top US military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, agreed with Gates that the December review would likely endorse the current approach.

"I think there certainly could be some adjustments, but we think the strategy is sound," Mullen said at the same press conference.

The NATO-led strategy is designed to push Talilban insurgents out of major towns in the south and east while building up Afghan government security forces so that American troops can start withdrawing by July 2011.

Gates and top commanders say there are tentative signs of progress in Afghanistan, where nearly 150,000 US and allied troops are trying to turn the tide against a resilient Islamist insurgency.

Before Obama announced plans for a troop buildup last December, White House aides and military officers feuded over the way forward in the troubled Afghan mission, according to a new book by famed Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward.

The book portrays Obama as struggling to find a way to end the US military presence in Afghanistan, with bitter infighting among top aides and lobbying by the military for more troops.

But Gates sought to play down reports of divisions in the administration over the Afghan war, saying officials had a vigorous debate before endorsing the president's policy.

Gates, whose career in government began in the 1970s, told reporters "the relationship among senior officials in this administration is as harmonious as any I've experienced in my time in government."

Gates said there had been a spirited discussion about war policy, which he said was valuable and led him to revise some of his own opinions.

"My view is that once the president made his decisions last December, everybody at the senior level in the administration was on board in terms of going forward with the strategy he approved and executing it to the best of our ability.

"And that continues to be the case."

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