WASHINGTON, Dec 14: Richard Holbrooke, the late US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, had some stark final words as he was sedated and going in for surgery, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

“You’ve got to stop this war in Afghanistan,” Mr Holbrooke told his Pakistani surgeon, the Post reported, citing unnamed family members. These were his last words.

The comments were reported to the media by a senior US official who accompanied Mr Holbrooke to the hospital. But the surgeon, Dr Farzad Najam, said he could not discuss this with the media.

The annual administration review on Afghan policy is due to discuss what progress has been made since Mr Obama last year deployed 30,000 extra forces there to try to turn the tide of war and prepare to start the US troop withdrawal in July 2011.—Agencies