U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday night voiced his opposition to large-scale military deployments overseas, promising to seek diplomatic means to ensure U.S. leadership and security.

"I will not send our troops into harm's way unless it's truly necessary," the president told a joint session of Congress in his annual State of the Union address.

"We must fight the battles that need to be fought, not those that terrorists prefer from us -- large-scale deployments that drain our strength and may ultimately feed extremism," he added.