France will stay in Afghanistan but will not send any extra troops to the war-torn country, President Nicolas Sarkozy said in an interview published Thursday. "Do we need to stay in Afghanistan? I say yes. And stay to win. Not against Afghanistan, but for Afghanistan," Sarkozy told Le Figaro newspaper. "If we leave, it is nuclear power Pakistan that will be threatened. But France will send not a soldier more," he said.
Sarkozy said he was "convinced" more Afghan soldiers were needed to defeat the Taliban insurgency. "They will be the most effective in winning this war because it is their country. But we need to pay them more to avoid desertions that benefit the Taliban," said the French president. France has 2,900 troops in the Nato-led coalition battling Taliban guerrillas and training Afghan security forces. Britain said Wednesday it was sending an extra 500 soldiers to Afghanistan and US President Barack Obama is weighing a request from Nato and the US military for tens of thousands more US troops to deploy to the bloody conflict.
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