Report: France considering more troops to Afghanistan

Dec 1, 2009, 8:20 GMT

Paris - The question of whether France will contribute more troops to operations in Afghanistan remains wide open, reported daily Le Figaro Tuesday, noting that French President Nicolas Sarkozy could reverse himself and back the troop deployment.

The pro-Sarkozy daily cited an advisor to the French president as saying, 'Nothing is excluded,' regarding the possible deployment of additional soldiers to fight the Taliban insurgents.

Sarkozy had a telephone conversation Monday with US President Barack Obama, who is expected to announce later Tuesday that he will send at least 30,000 more soldiers to the area.

The daily Le Monde reported that, last week, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had requested from French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner that Paris deploy an additional 1,500 French troops in Afghanistan.

According to official Defence Ministry figures, France currently has about 3,400 soldiers in the country. Defence Minister Herve Morin last week categorically rejected the idea of beefing up France's Afghan force.

According to Le Figaro, France will not make a decision on sending more troops until after an international conference on Afghanistan, which will likely be held on January 28 in London.

The conference will gather the leaders from all the countries engaged in the conflict as well as Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

'President Obama's announcement will not provoke an automatic deployment of additional troops,' a Sarkozy advisor said.

Obama's decision must above all be followed by 'more precise commitments by the Afghan president regarding the improvement of army recruitment, training of police officers and the fight against corruption,' the advisor said.