France, Germany reject US appeals to boost Afghan force

PARIS (AFP) - France and Germany refused US requests to immediately promise more troops for Afghanistan, frustrating President Barack Obamas hopes that allies would match his troop surge.
Britain has already offered an extra 500 troops and Italy has said it will send an unspecified number but Poland and other contributors are among those waiting to see what happens in Afghanistan.
US officials say Obama is about to announce a surge of 30,000 troops and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown this week predicted other nations would provide another 10,000.
France will not deploy extra combat troops to Afghanistan but may send more military trainers for Afghan forces, President Nicolas Sarkozys special envoy to the region said Tuesday.
A French minister said Tuesday that President Nicolas Sarkozy had refused a US request for more troops. But Le Monde newspaper quoted a Sarkozy aide as saying that France was weighing the request and could agree to boost its presence as long as the fresh troops focus on training Afghan forces.
You know the presidents answer, its 'no, Pierre Lellouche, the minister for Europe and a former envoy to Afghanistan, said in a French television interview. Sarkozy said last week that no more French troops would go to Afghanistan.
Le Monde reported that Obama was seeking 1,500 extra French troops for Afghanistan, on top of the 3,400 already there. It quoted a member of Sarkozys staff as saying France would wait to see what happens at a conference on Afghanistan in London on January 28.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her country would also wait until after the London meeting.
We are expecting requests from the United States but we will not take a decision in the coming days, we will do so after the conference on Afghanistan, Merkel said after talks in Berlin with Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.
After this conference on Afghanistan, Germany will decide whether or not it will make fresh efforts, and if so, what efforts, Merkel said, adding that security in Afghanistan would not be solved by military means alone.
Germany has around 4,300 troops in northern Afghanistan, the third largest contributor to a 100,000-strong international force after the United States and Britain, whose extra 500 troops will take it past 10,000 in the war.
Poland will decide within a month whether to beef-up its contingent of 2,000 troops in Afghanistan by up to a thousand new soldiers, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Tuesday.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd pledged Monday to send more police trainers and civilian aid experts to Afghanistan, saying his country was in it for the long haul.
But Rudd, who met in Washington this week with Obama, did not offer more troops beyond 1,550 Australia has already committed.