France to seek review of NATO Afghan mission

PARIS, Nov 27: France will ask its NATO partners this week to set up a contact group to review and reorganise the alliance's mission in Afghanistan, a source close to French President Jacques Chirac said today.

NATO took over responsibility for security in Afghanistan from the United States this year and the 32,000 troops in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) force are fighting the toughest ground war in the alliance's 57-year history.

Its mission is set to dominate discussions at a two-day summit of the 26-member alliance in Riga, Latvia, from tomorrow.

The presidential source said France would propose setting up a contact group that would comprise all the nations contributing forces to the ISAF mission, including non-NATO members like New Zealand, countries in the region and international organisations such as the World Bank and United Nations.

A French diplomat, who declined to be named, said today that what was meant to be a NATO peacekeeping mission to Afghanistan risked becoming a mission that was trying to impose peace on the country.

The same source said any contact group would look to revise ISAF operations, but maintain its key objective -- to strengthen the Kabul government.

Afghanistan is going through its bloodiest period since US-led coalition forces overthrew the Taliban's radical Islamic government in 2001.

The violence has seriously hampered development and reconstruction, raised fears the Taliban are gaining support in the countryside, and reinforced perceptions President Hamid Karzai has little control outside Kabul.

France has some 1,100 troops in the Kabul area which are under NATO control and up to 200 special forces tied to the US-led Operation Enduring Freedom. However, Paris is reviewing the deployment of the elite forces.

REUTERS