Biden made the decision keeping in mind the security risks of staying in the country for a long time, the official said, and also asked for plans for what would happen in the event he later decided that the US needed to stay in the country for a long time.
Although the United States is flying tens of thousands of people into the country, the situation in Afghanistan remains tense and many Afghan people who have helped the war wait for their turn to leave. U.S. officials have described in sharp words the real threat of terrorist attacks at Kabul airport as crowds gathered outside the gates.
Biden's aides were expected to discuss the plane, and he may explain his decision to leave at the end of the month, at a morning video conference with the world's leading democrats.
Biden spoke for seven minutes in the Group of 7 after 9:30 a.m. ET, the White House said. He will present public talks later in the day.
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Critical negotiations on the G7 come as Afghan migration efforts have taken a toll on the past few days, far exceeding the original day-to-day administrative goals. The White House on Tuesday said 12,700 people had been evacuated by 37 U.S. military planes and 8,900 had been evacuated by coalition planes in the past 24 hours. The Pentagon added that the military would increase the speed of flight from Kabul to one plane every 45 minutes.
In total, the White House says US efforts have helped relocate an estimated 58,700 people since August 14, and 63,900 since the end of July. About 1,000 Afghans have arrived at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, DC, in the last 24 hours, according to the Pentagon.
The massive operation of the U.S. military - which controlled part of Kabul International Airport, including air traffic control, following the Taliban's takeover - has allowed other countries to evacuate their citizens. If the US withdraws, it is unclear whether citizens from any country will still be able to leave.
Despite the skyrocketing planes, some Biden advisers were concerned about the safety of US troops and the sanctioning power of ISIS or Taliban if they stayed longer than August 31. Taliban representatives called the deadline, and said U.S. troops their and the United States.
Officials held daily talks with Taliban on security issues, including the end of the month. The CIA director, Bill Burns, traveled to Afghanistan this week to meet with Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar, according to senior management, who said the US wanted a clear understanding of the Taliban's position on many issues as the clock marked the deadline.
Burns, a veteran labor strategist, has been a senior US official meeting with the Taliban leadership since the fall of Afghanistan's national government on August 15.
Some in the President's national security team have warned of an extension. Instead, they pointed out the fastest flights out of the country and said they still believed there was a time of competition and effort before September.
"We believe we have time between now and 31 to get out any American who wants to get out," national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Monday.
Any extension could be too short and focused only on removing the American people, according to one official who knew about the matter, who said everything was still under discussion. The Taliban have made it clear that "our leadership will make the right or necessary decisions" in the event that the US stays in power before August 31, department spokesman Sohail Shaheen said on Monday.
"August 31 is the deadline they have announced," a Taliban spokesman said. "The US must follow up on withdrawing troops from Afghanistan on this day. Otherwise, it would be a clear violation of the law."
An emergency G7 summit was called this week to respond to the unrest in Kabul, where tens of thousands of foreign nationals and Afghan civilians who had helped in the war struggled to get out.
Britain and France in particular have pressed Biden to leave the country for a few days, saying it would still allow him to meet his first US military withdrawal date. They are hopeful that Biden agrees, and believe that that will be a good indication after his decision to withdraw from Afghanistan has created difficulties in US relations.
Even some American Democrats agree; House Intelligence chairman Adam Schiff appeared at a planned conference with intelligence officials on Monday hoping the Biden authorities would be able to achieve their goal of expelling all Americans and their allies from Afghanistan on August 31, saying that was "impossible."
"It's hard for me to imagine that all that can be achieved from now until the end of the month," Schiff said, adding that he was concerned about the threat to the airport.
There is another House of Representatives forum on Afghanistan scheduled for Tuesday morning. Senior members of Biden's national security team, including Secretary of State and Defense, will inform the lawyers. The group was also supposed to summarize Biden at the White House.
G7 members also set out on Tuesday to discuss whether they should collectively accept the Taliban as Afghanistan