US asks France for 1,500 troops for Afghanistan: report

PARIS, Nov 30, 2009 (AFP) - The United States has asked France to provide another 1,500 troops for the allied mission in Afghanistan, the French newspaper Le Monde reported Monday.

In Paris, a spokesman for the French foreign ministry refused to confirm or deny the report, which said US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made the request on Thursday in a telephone call to French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.


In Washington, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Clinton spoke by telephone with Kouchner on Thursday but gave no details other than that he was one of many allies she called about coordinating efforts in Afghanistan.

Besides Kouchner, Kelly said, Clinton also spoke late last week with her counterparts from Poland, Canada, Italy, South Korea, Netherlands, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Turkey, Greece, Germany, Britain, and Norway.

"A number of these calls were specifically to talk to our partners who are involved... in the effort in Afghanistan and to... talk in general outlines about the president's strategy going forward in Afghanistan," he said.

"She talked about the need for mostly coordinating our efforts," Kelly told reporters. "But, again, I'm just not going to get into about numbers or increases or anything like that."

US President Barack Obama has asked Washington's NATO allies to increase their troop numbers in Afghanistan, and he is expected to announce at least 30,000 US reinforcements in a major speech on Afghan strategy Tuesday.

The White House said Monday that Obama had called French President Nicolas Sarkozy to update him on plans.

France already has 3,750 soldiers attached to the campaign, 3,400 of them in Afghanistan itself, but Sarkozy's government has insisted that it has no plans to increase the number.

Britain, Italy and Macedonia said Monday that they would send reinforcements.


by Katherine Haddon
(c) 2009 AFP