Nato debates France's early Afghan exit

The defence ministers are facing dilemmas after France abruptly decided to end its Afghan combat mission early.The French move is set to dominate two days of talks meant to review progress in the Afghan military transition, discuss ways to keep strong military capabilities in times of austerity and prepare a May summit in Chicago.But allies will now also be confronted with a NATO report, leaked to British media and based on interrogations of detainees, claiming that Islamabad, via its ISI intelligence agency, is intimately involved with the insurgency.President Nicolas Sarkozy announced last week that France would end its combat role in Afghanistan in 2013, a year early, after four French toops were killed by a renegade Afghan soldier.He also encouraged all allies to do the same, but officials indicated that NATO would maintain a carefully crafted plan to hand Afghan forces full control of the battlefield by the end of 2014.We stick to the roadmap that was outlined at the NATO summit in Lisbon in November 2010, NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Monday.British Prime Minister David Cameron cautioned against abrupt withdrawals.I dont want to see some sort of cliff edge in 2014 when all of the remaining troops come out at once, Cameron told reporters after talks Saturday with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.With 130,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, one senior NATO military official said changing the calendar would be a logistical headache, noting that there is $30 billion (22.8 billion euros) worth of military materiel in the mountainous, landlocked nation.Removing all the equipment and forces we have there will take a long while, the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.The French decision revived fears that other allies, influenced by war-weary voters, would return home earlier.We are concerned there might be a rush to the exit with one important ally opting out of the (transition) timeframe, said an alliance diplomat. The end of 2014 is realistic. This is the goal we should all aim for.--AFP