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US President Joe Biden plans to announce Tuesday a withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan by the upcoming twentieth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, according to three people familiar with the plans.

The withdrawal extends the US troop presence past a May 1 deadline set by the Trump administration in an agreement with the Taliban but only by a matter of months.

Biden had been weighing the decision for months with his advisers and signalled he did not believe US troops should remain in the country long past the deadline.

READ MORE: How Stuxnet worm took out Iranian nuclear facility in 2010

Officials were expected to explain the decision further later on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST).

The Washington Post was first to report the news.

US officials say there are about 2500 troops in Afghanistan.

It's not immediately clear what will happen to several hundred US special operations forces there that often work for the CIA on counter-terrorism missions.

Those troops are not publicly acknowledged and are not part of the formal calculation of 2500 troops in the country.

Decision would end longest war in American history

Mr Biden's new September 11 deadline to withdraw US troops would mark a symbolic end to the longest war in American history.

It would come exactly 20 years after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks sparked the initial US invasion of Afghanistan.

The Afghanistan troop withdrawal is the first major decision of Mr Biden's presidency regarding US troops abroad, and Biden wrestled with what to do for months leading up to the May 1 deadline set by his predecessor.

Last month, he signalled he was unlikely to meet the May 1 deadline but said at his first press conference as president that he did not envision US troops remaining in Afghanistan by next year.

"We are not staying for a long time. We will leave," Mr Biden said.

"The question is when we leave."

He added, "it's going to be hard to meet the May 1 deadline just in terms of tactical reasons."

Secretary of State Tony Blinken laid the groundwork for Mr Biden to make an announcement about the withdrawal in a phone call with President Ashraf Ghani on Tuesday, according to two sources familiar with the phone call.

Blinken did not divulge precise details about the withdrawal but explained that Mr Biden would be calling Mr Ghani on Thursday. Mr Blinken left the Afghan president with the understanding that his US counterpart had decided on withdrawing US troops over the course of the next few months.

Biden administration officials have also been sending signals to Afghan officials at the working level that this was the direction they were headed in, one source explained.

The Biden administration is also making a series of phone calls to allies in the region this afternoon to detail their planned strategy, two diplomatic sources told CNN.

Mr Ghani tweeted on Tuesday that he had spoken to Blinken about planned US-backed peace talks between the government of Afghanistan and the Taliban set for this week and the upcoming phone call Biden.

"Today I spoke with Secretary @ABlinken. We discussed the ongoing peace process, the upcoming peace talks in Turkey, and also spoke about the upcoming phone call with President @JoeBiden", he said.

https://twitter.com/ashrafghani/status/1381926182996865030

Decision comes with risks

The decision to set a deadline for withdrawal comes with risks, as senior military commanders have advocated keeping US troops in the country and have argued a premature withdrawal could lead to a collapse of the Afghan government.

Recent attacks against US forces in Afghanistan have also fuelled concerns. CNN reported last week that the Taliban twice targeted one of the most heavily guarded bases in the country in March and that US military personnel working for the CIA were at the installation when it came under fire.

The US wants to keep an intelligence presence in Afghanistan, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

The annual US intelligence community's assessment released on Tuesday said prospects for a peace deal between the Taliban and the Afghan government "remain low during the next year."

"The Taliban is likely to make gains on the battlefield, and the Afghan Government will struggle to hold the Taliban at bay if the coalition withdraws support," the assessment says.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has rallied state leaders and health ministers in his bid to salvage the beleaguered COVID-19 vaccination program.

From Monday, national cabinet will meet twice a week "for the foreseeable future until we solve the problems and get the programme back on track", Mr Morrison said in a statement issued overnight.

In his biggest admission to date that the vaccine rollout is at serious risk of falling significantly behind schedule, Mr Morrison said he wanted states and territories to "move back to an operational footing".

READ MORE: US recommends 'pause' for J&J vaccine over clot reports

"We are throwing everything at these issues, uniting the nation to keep the vaccination programme safe, to get the rollout right, and to be open and transparent about how we are tracking," he said.

The Prime Minister said patchy vaccine supplies and changing medical advice were "serious challenges we need to overcome", whilst admitting "many of us would like to be further along in the recovery".

"This is a complex task and there are problems with the programme that we need to solve to ensure more Australians can be vaccinated safely and more quickly," he said.

"There are issues we are trying to deal with as a federal government, and I have been upfront about those.

"But amongst the states and territories, they are also tackling their own unique issues and working together we are all going to be in a better position to find the best solutions."

National cabinet has previously only met about once a month.

Mr Morrison has so far refused to put a target on when he expects all eligible Australians to receive their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

He had said he would like to see those doses "by the end of the year" but it was "not possible to set such targets given the many uncertainties involved".

Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Nick Coatsworth said on Monday that the government was not necessarily to blame for the multiple setbacks that have hindered the rollout.

The US is recommending a "pause" in using the single-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine to investigate reports of potentially dangerous blood clots.

In a joint statement Tuesday, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration said they were investigating unusual clots in six women that occurred 6 to 13 days after vaccination. The clots occurred in veins that drain blood from the brain and occurred together with low platelets. All six cases were in women between the ages of 18 and 48.

The reports appear similar to a rare, unusual type of clotting disorder that European authorities say is possibly linked to another COVID-19 vaccine not yet cleared in the US, from AstraZeneca.

READ MORE: India to approve coronavirus shots green-lit by WHO, others

More than 6.8 million doses of the J&J vaccine have been administered in the US, the vast majority with no or mild side effects.

US federal distribution channels, including mass vaccination sites, will pause the use of the J&J shot, and states and other providers are expected to follow. The other two authorised vaccines, from Moderna and Pfizer, make up the vast share of COVID-19 shots administered in the US and are not affected by the pause.

"I'd like to stress these events appear to be extremely rare. However COVID-19 vaccine safety is a top priority," FDA Acting Commissioner Janet Woodcock said at a news conference.

A CDC committee will meet Wednesday to discuss the cases and the FDA has also launched an investigation into the cause of the clots and low platelet counts.

"Until that process is complete, we are recommending a pause in the use of this vaccine out of an abundance of caution," Dr Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the CDC, and Dr Peter Marks, director of the FDA's Centre for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in a joint statement.

READ MORE: International travel may not return to pre-pandemic levels until 2024

They are recommending that people who were given the J&J vaccine who are experiencing severe headache, abdominal pain, leg pain, or shortness of breath within three weeks after receiving the shot contact their health care provider.

J&J said in a statement it was aware of the reports of blood clots, but that no link to its vaccine had been established. The company also said it is delaying the rollout of its vaccine in Europe.

US health authorities cautioned doctors against using a typical clot treatment, the blood-thinner heparin. "In this setting, administration of heparin may be dangerous and alternative treatments need to be given," the FDA and CDC said.

European authorities investigating the AstraZeneca cases have concluded clots appear to be similar to a very rare abnormal immune response that sometimes strikes people treated with heparin, leading to a temporary clotting disorder.

READ MORE: How a small Asian country vaccinated almost every adult in just 16 days

While it's not clear yet if the reports among J&J recipients are related, doctors would treat these kinds of unusual clots like they treat people who have the heparin reaction — with different kinds of blood thinners and sometimes an antibody infusion, said Dr. Geoffrey Barnes, a clot expert at the University of Michigan.

As authorities investigate whether the clots really are related to the J&J vaccine, Barnes stressed that it's important Americans get vaccinated as soon as possible using the other two available vaccines, from Pfizer and Moderna.

"If you have a chance to get vaccinated with those, we strongly encourage it. The risks of COVID are real and they're high," Barnes said.

Jeff Zients, the White House COVID-19 response coordinator, said 28 million doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines will be available for states this week, more than enough to keep up the nation's pace of 3 million shots a day despite the J&J pause.

States swiftly moved Tuesday morning to implement the pause. New York state health commissioner Dr Howard Zucker said the state will follow the recommendation and pause the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine at state-run sites. People with Tuesday appointments for Johnson & Johnson vaccines at state-run mass vaccination sites will instead get the Pfizer vaccine, he said.

The city of Dallas had planned to begin an in-home vaccination program using the J&J vaccine for homebound or elderly people. The city said it will pause the program until more guidance is released.

The J&J vaccine received emergency use authorisation from the FDA in late February with great fanfare, with hopes that its single-dose and relatively simple storage requirements would speed vaccinations across the country. Yet the shot only makes up a small fraction of the doses administered in the US as J&J has been plagued by production delays and manufacturing errors at the Baltimore plant of a contractor.

Last week the drugmaker took over the facility to scale up production in hopes of meeting its commitment to the US government of providing about 100 million doses by the end of May.

Only about 9 million of the company's doses have been delivered to states and are awaiting administration, according to CDC data.

Until now concern about the unusual blood clots has centred on the vaccine from AstraZeneca, which has not yet received authorisation in the US. Last week, European regulators said they found a possible link between the shots and a very rare type of blood clot that occurs together with low blood platelets, one that seems to occur more in younger people.

The European Medicines Agency stressed that the benefits of receiving the vaccine outweigh the risks for most people. But several countries have imposed limits on who can receive the vaccine; Britain recommended that people under 30 be offered alternatives.

But the J&J and AstraZeneca vaccines are made with the same technology. Leading COVID-19 vaccines train the body to recognise the spike protein that coats the outer surface of the coronavirus. But the J&J and AstraZeneca vaccines use a cold virus, called an adenovirus, to carry the spike gene into the body. J&J uses a human adenovirus to create its vaccine while AstraZeneca uses a chimpanzee version.

The announcement hit US stock markets immediately, with Dow futures falling almost 200 points just over two hours before the opening bell. Shares of Johnson & Johnson dropped almost 3 per cent.

Thousands of families and businesses affected by ex-tropical Cyclone Seroja are still without power as authorities scramble to help the worst hit areas.

Residents and businesses in Kalbarri, a small tourist town seven hours north of Perth, are continuing to clean up from the devastating effects of Seroja after it made landfall on Sunday night.

The powerful system, which brought with it 170km/h winds and more than 167mm of rain, left more than 30,500 residents and businesses without power.

READ MORE: Seroja damage 'widespread, severe'

Close to 40 per cent of Kalbarri has been damaged with authorities still trying to calculate the cost of damages Seroja inflicted on the beachside town.

Local businesses have lost money from the impact to their shops as well as the repair bill.

"It's just a complete mess. I think you've seen it yourself, it just looks like a bomb's gone off. Whole place is wrecked," local IGA store owner Wayne Forrest told 9News.

Black Cafe owner Kevin Dawson said he was unsure his business would recover from the damage.

"Three hundred chairs, 120 tables, a wall, the roof, the windows. Total devastation, total destruction, something I don't think we'll recover from, I don't think we'll be able to open again," Mr Dawson told 9News.

Kalbarri resident Kat Deadman was emotional as she spoke with 9News about the damage caused to her Kalbarri Boat Hire business.

Her office – a five tonne demountable – was hurled onto its side by the strength of the storm.

"Just lifted up, and that was actually over here. So just it's gone up and flipped and spun, and over the tree," Ms Deadman said.

Phone lines have been reinstated and families in the area are now able to contact loved ones after days of uncertainty.

Rebecca Bond told Today she and her two kids were forced to hide under the sink as the cyclone made landfall.

"We hid in the bathroom. It actually sounded like a freight train had come through the house. The walls were shaking," Ms Bond said.

"We have got about 40 per cent damage. No roof as you can see in here, in my daughter's room.

"The entertainment area and also the garage is gone as well. Very scary."

READ MORE: Cyclone smashes into WA, wrecking homes and cutting power

It is feared the cleanup could take months with WA Premier Mark McGowan saying he is "heartbroken" as he toured affected regions, assuring swift assistance for those impacted.

WA's Lord Mayor's Distress Relief Fund has already raised more than $2.5 million since it was launched this morning and that includes money from the State Government and the board that controls the fund.

Locals will be waiting to see the outcome of a meeting with the Prime Minister tomorrow and the Federal Government is likely to deliver the millions of dollars needed not just for short term relief but to rebuild the entire town.

An evacuation point is still operating out of Geraldton with those in need urged to come forward for help.

READ MORE: More than 20,000 without power as Cyclone Seroja lashes WA

Some huddled in bathtubs while others hid in pantries or toilets.

Miraculously, nobody was injured.

Mr McGowan said the biggest threat had now passed, and attention had started to shift to recovery efforts, which will be bolstered by the Australian Defence Force (ADF).

"Emergency crews have been working through the day to assess damage and restore power, it is too early to provide a complete picture of the total damage," Mr McGowan said.

"Western Australians are thinking of those people affected, we are all with you, ready to help in any way we can, the next few days however will be very tough and difficult."