France decides to withdraw earlier from Afghanistan

President Nicolas Sarkozy said France would pull its forces out of Afghanistan a year earlier than planned, a week after the killing of four French servicemen by a renegade Afghan soldier.

After meeting Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Paris, Sarkozy said France had decided to transfer security in the eastern Kapisa province, where most of the 3,600-strong French contingent is based and the scene of the shooting, to Afghan forces from March of this year. “The pursuit of the transition and this gradual transfer of combat responsibilities will allow us to plan for a return of all our combat forces by the end of 2013,” Sarkozy said, adding that 1,000 troops would return in 2012.

This decision was made “in agreement with President Karzai and in agreement with our allies, in an organised and reasonable way,” he said.

“A few hundred” French troops would stay on after 2013 to train Afghan troops, Sarkozy said.

Sarkozy said he would encourage Nato to consider transferring all its combat operations to Afghan forces in 2013, instead of the scheduled deadline of end-2014. French training operations in Afghanistan, suspended after the shooting, had to resume yesterday, the French president added.

US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the French announcement was part of the “managed effort” to withdraw from Afghanistan.

“This was not precipitous... this was worked through carefully with Nato, with the Afghans and in consultation with all of us,” she told reporters.

“There were some concerns expressed in Nato countries... as well as in Afghanistan that whatever was done needed to be done in a consultative fashion, needed to be done in a managed fashion,” Nuland said. “And what we see now is just that, a consulted and managed effort.”

A Nato spokeswoman said only: “We take note of the French statement.”

Most French – 84 per cent – want their troops back home by the end of 2012, according to an opinion poll published last week.