By IRNA
Kabul : President of France and Australian prime minister flew into Kabul Saturday for meetings with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Afghanistan Saturday morning followed by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
Sarkozy ‘assured President Karzai of his government’s long term political and military support with the people of Afghanistan’.
Rudd, who arrived several hours after Sarkozy, also met Karzai.
More than 1,900 French troops are in Afghanistan, serving both the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
Australia is the largest non-NATO contributor to the war in Afghanistan, with nearly 1,000 troops stationed mostly in the southern province of Oruzgan.
Rudd took office earlier this month pledging to withdraw Australian troops from Iraq — an effort his predecessor, John Howard, staunchly opposed — but Rudd says he will keep Australia’s commitment to Afghanistan.
Australia’s new defense minister Joel Fitzgibbon warned US and NATO allies recently that they risk losing the war in Afghanistan without a sharp shift in military and reconstruction efforts there.