The U.S. President Barrack Obama has renewed his resolve to start withdrawing his country's troops from Afghanistan in July this year even as he warned of tough fighting ahead in the nine-year-old war. In his State of the Union address, Mr. Obama said American forces were leaving Iraq as planned. Top officials however said the withdrawal date could involve only a small number of troops as NATO leaders are aiming to hand over security to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.Obama's speech focused mainly on the country's economic challenges and he only briefly touched on Afghanistan, where roughly 97,000 troops are deployed. The US president ordered in 30,000 reinforcements in December 2009 to try to turn around the war against Taliban insurgents.