|
London: French President Nicolas Sarkozy plans to announce that France will send 1,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, a British newspaper reported.
The Times cited unnamed senior ministers as saying Sarkozy wants to demonstrate his commitment to the NATO alliance's Afghan mission during his two-day visit to London next week, which begins on Friday.
One minister was quoted as saying that Britain's Defense Ministry had made a working assumption Sarkozy would announce that "slightly more than 1,000 troops" are to be deployed to eastern Afghanistan.
The British and French defense ministries and the presidential Elysee Palace all declined to comment on the report.
France is widely expected to boost its role in Afghanistan beyond the 1,900 soldiers currently there at a NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania, on April 2-4.
The refusal of key European allies such as Germany, Italy and Spain to send forces to join the British, Americans, Canadians and Dutch who are leading the fight in the south has led to months of ugly infighting within NATO.
France's expected announcement will help the need.
However, it is not yet clear whether the French soldiers will be sent to the south in response to Canada's threat to pull out of dangerous Kandahar province unless NATO finds 1,000 reinforcements for its beleaguered troops there.
|
