France's President Nicolas Sarkozy and Australia's newly-elected Prime Minister Kevin Rudd met separately with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday, both pledging a long-term commitment to the embattled country.
Sarkozy, on the first-ever visit by a French president to Afghanistan, suggested his country might do more to help build Afghanistan's police force and army.
"The top contribution for the French troops is to help the training and building of an Afghan army, an Afghan police, to assist in the creation of an Afghan administration, an Afghan judiciary," Sarkozy said Saturday in Kabul.
"There is a war going on here, a war against terrorism, against fanaticism that we cannot and will not lose," he said.
"What is certain is that we have not wanted to give the signal of departure, that would have been a despicable signal at a time when one sees the ravages inflicted by terrorism in the world."
About a year ago, France announced its decision to withdraw 200 Special Forces troops. The move created questions about whether the pullout would precede a larger withdrawal.
France still has about 1,300 troops operating in Afghanistan, mostly around Kabul -- a relatively secure area. Sarkozy was to meet with those troops.
Canada has about 2,500 troops operating in volatile Kandahar province. The U.S. has 26,000 of the roughly 50,000 international troops operating in Afghanistan.
A statement released by Karzai's office said Sarkozy mainly discussed Afghanistan's poor security situation and opium production with Karzai. In 2007, Afghanistan accounted for 93 per cent of the world's opium production, which is the main ingredient in heroin.
According to the statement, Sarkozy assured the Afghan president that France has a long-term political and military interest in Afghanistan.
"They emphasized that there should be lots of work on different issues like energy, irrigation and also in road reconstruction, especially highways," Karzai's office said.
The French president was accompanied by French Defence Minister Herve Morin, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and Human Rights Minister Rama Yade.
French troops have been in Afghanistan since late 2001, but other allies have expressed frustration that France doesn't allow its soldiers to participate in combat operations in southern and eastern Afghanistan.
Australia
Hours later, Karzai met with Rudd who was visiting some of Australia's 900 troops serving mostly in Uruzgan province, which is immediately north of Kandahar.
Rudd, who was elected in late November, said he wanted to confirm his country's commitment to the Afghanistan mission.
"We will be, as I said before, in this country, Afghanistan, for the long haul, and it's important for us to be here in partnership with countries from NATO," he said.
Australia is not a NATO member.
Rudd announced a $95 million reconstruction aid package. Most of that amount will be spent in Uruzgan.
Reporters asked Karzai why the military hasn't tried to retake Gizab, a Taliban-controlled near Uruzgan.
Karzai, who has been pressuring militant fighters to abandon their arms, said he didn't want to use force.
"We don't even want the Taliban to get hurt or die. We want to attract them back to civilian life within the constitution of Afghanistan," Karzai said. "We would like to do that through means other than the military."
With files from The Associated Press
