PARIS (Reuters) - France may send hundreds of ground troops to east Afghanistan where NATO-led forces are fighting al Qaeda-backed insurgents, Le Monde newspaper reported on Tuesday.
It said the move would be part of a new Afghan policy beingworked out by President Nicolas Sarkozy and his advisers.
France has about 1,900 soldiers under NATO's Afghancommand, most of them based in relatively calm Kabul, and LeMonde said the fresh troops would be deployed outside thecapital.
"Their destination would be zones of potentially fiercefighting, preferably the eastern region of Afghanistan close tothe tribal areas of Pakistan," it said.
Early last year, France withdrew 200 special forcessoldiers who had been operating under U.S. command inAfghanistan, but Le Monde said Paris was now expected tosanction the return of the special forces. About 50 remained totrain Afghan commandos.
A presidential spokesman declined to confirm or deny thenewspaper report. "The president has not made a decision. Weare in discussion with our partners, inside NATO but notexclusively," he said.
An alliance source said the plan was one of a number ofoptions that France was discussing with allies ahead of anApril summit in Bucharest at which alliance leaders will lookto give new impetus to the security mission.
Under the plan, the deployment of French soldiers to theeast would free up U.S. forces there to go and help Canadiantroops fighting insurgents in the south.
"Our understanding is that there is no decision on this.There is a long way to go until Bucharest," said the source.
Washington is heading a campaign for what it calls a fairersharing of the burden in the fight against Taliban insurgents.Britain, Canada, Poland and others have backed the U.S. demand.
Germany, Italy and Spain have troops in relatively secureareas and have refused to send troops to southern and easternprovinces where the militants are most active.
At a meeting in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius this month,NATO defence ministers with troops fighting the Taliban in thesouth of Afghanistan backed calls by the United States for morecountries to send forces there.
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said last weekthe alliance's future rested on its mission in Afghanistan.
Earlier this month, senior Canadian officials had talks inParis on a possible offer of French support for 2,500 Canadiantroops in southern Afghanistan.
Since his election in May, Sarkozy has sent more combataircraft to Kandahar in southern Afghanistan and beefed upFrench efforts to train the Afghan army.
(Reporting by Andrew Dobbie in Paris and Mark John inBrussels; Editing by Robert Woodward)
