Sarkozy says Pakistan also at stake in Afghan campaign

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Thursday that pulling out of Afghanistan, where 10 French troops were killed by the Taliban last month, would amount to abandoning Pakistan. "If we abandon Afghanistan we will be abandoning Pakistan, which doesn't need that. I want to remind you of one thing: that Pakistan has the nuclear bomb," he told reporters before winding up a visit to the Syrian capital.
"I want to say to the French that my conviction has not changed," he said. "If almost all democracies are down there, if (US presidential candidate) Barack Obama has made the presence in Afghanistan the centrepiece of his election campaign. He must have a good reason," Sarkozy said.