The move comes a day after General Stanley McChrystal, the the commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, apologized for comments by his aides insulting some of President Barack Obama's closest advisers in an article to be published in Rolling Stone magazine.

The military officials said McChrystal would be returning from Kabul on Wednesday, but did not give any more details.

A US embassy spokeswoman in Kabul said she was aware of the media reports but could not comment.

McChrystal will meet in person with Obama, US media reported.

The Rolling Stone article, to be published on Friday, also quoted an aide describing McChrystal's "disappointment" with his initial one-on-one meeting with Obama last year.

"I extend my sincerest apology for this profile. It was a mistake reflecting poor judgment and should never have happened," McChrystal said in a statement on Monday.

The Rolling Stone article, which quoted several McChrystal aides anonymously, portrays a split between the US military and Obama's advisers at an extremely sensitive moment for the Pentagon, which is fending off criticism of its strategy to turn around the nearly nine-year-old Afghan war.

It quotes a member of McChrystal's team making jokes about Vice President Joe Biden, who was seen as critical of the general's efforts to escalate the conflict and who had favored a more limited counter-terrorism approach.

"Biden?" the aide was quoted as saying. "Did you say: Bite me?"

Another aide called White House National Security Adviser Jim Jones, a retired four star general, a "clown" who was "stuck in 1985."

McChrystal was quoted as saying he felt "betrayed" by the leak of a classified cable from US Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry last year. The cable raised doubts about sending more troops to shore up an Afghan government already lacking in credibility.

McChrystal took command of all US and NATO forces in Afghanistan in June 2009 after his predecessor General David McKiernan was removed for what most experts interpreted as a sign Washington was losing patience with conventional tactics that failed to quell mounting violence.