Barack Obama's mega-team of foreign policy advisers is in the spotlight as the Illinois senator makes his first trip to Iraq and Afghanistan since becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Obama's council of foreign policy advisers has grown to 300, The New York Times reported Friday. The team's core members mostly consist of officials who served under President Clinton's administration, but the group recently has grown with the addition of Hillary Clinton's former foreign policy aides.

"It is unwieldy, no question," foreign policy aide Denis McDonough told The New York Times.

Obama says he is traveling to the war zones so he can speak with troops and commanders on the ground and make a thorough assessment of military progress in the region. He says he's willing to take into account what he learns as he continues to formulate his national security policies.

Obama also has put new emphasis over the last week on his pledge to end the war by the summer of 2010. Most of his foreign policy advisers, The New York Times reports, were, like Obama, opposed to the Iraq war early on. And they tend to favor diplomacy and economic aid over military might as a way to advance U.S. interests abroad.

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