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 As early as Thursday, Sarkozy's top brass is to present him with a variety of options, from sending special forces to more trainers for Afghan troops, a French military official told The Associated Press. He spoke on condition of anonymity, because the decisions will ultimately rest with Sarkozy.
Sarkozy isn't expected to announce a final decision until the NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania, in early April, which is shaping up as a litmus test of his commitment to the Atlantic alliance which has often had a rocky relationship with France.
For Sarkozy, it's a chance to put muscle where his mouth is. The pro-American French leader has been promising to turn the page from the era of predecessor Jacques Chirac, who in 2006 ordered 200 French special forces out of Afghanistan and was a major critic of the U.S.-led Iraq war.
The NATO mission, known as the International Security Assistance Force, is strained over Canada's demand for 1,000 troops from another ally to support its 2,500 in the increasingly violence-wracked region of Kandahar, in Afghanistan's south. Ottawa has said it will pull them out when its mandate ends next year if no one answers its call.
France has said it could not meet the Canadian requirement alone. But Sarkozy's hand-raising to boost the French role could give political cover to other, more-reluctant allies to chip in, too.
France has 1,500 troops in and around the Afghan capital, Kabul, providing security and training Afghan troops as part of the NATO mission. Another 400 are in the separate, U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom, a muscular effort to battle the Taliban and al-Qaida.
Last year the Taliban launched more than 140 suicide missions -- the highest number since they were ousted from power by the U.S.-led invasion of 2001. Insurgency-related violence in 2007 killed a record 6,500 people, mostly militants, according to an Associated Press tally based on figures from Afghan and Western officials.
As a former interior minister, Sarkozy is intensely aware of the terror threat. A Sarkozy advisor speaking on condition of anonymity said the president believes France and its allies will "pay a very heavy price" in the West and Muslim worlds if Afghanistan falls back to the Taliban.
"This is 'our war,'" said Francois Heisbourg, head of the state-funded Foundation for Strategic Research think-tank. "It's not like Iraq. This isn't something that the Americans ... dragged their more-or-less willing partners into
-- some of them kicking and screaming."
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 "This is one in which we collectively decided that we have a stake."
French daily Le Figaro reported this week that military planners are looking at four options: Sending more trainers for Afghan soldiers in and around Kabul; backing up the Canadians in the south; providing reinforcements for the southwestern Helmand province and along the border with Iran where criminal groups thrive; and deploying more troops in the volatile tribal areas of eastern Afghanistan, where Taliban and al-Qaida militants hide along the Pakistan border.
French officials say many options are on the table, and it's far too early to specify what the president will decide.
"For the moment, no decision has been made," French Defense Minister Herve Morin told The AP. Asked whether the options in the Le Figaro article were correct, he replied: "No ... not really. We're going to have to look at it closely."
France, like many other NATO countries, says its options are limited in Afghanistan because its forces are already stretched thin around the world. Cmdr. Christophe Prazuck, a military spokesman, says France's total "projection capacity" is 20,000 troops.
If the often-delayed European Union force for Chad and the Central African Republic is fully deployed as expected in coming weeks, France will have some 13,000 deployed in five missions: Ivory Coast; Kosovo and Bosnia; Chad and the C.A.R.; Lebanon; and Afghanistan.
A Sarkozy move to send more forces to Afghanistan could also give him a chance to wrest American concessions to let Europe have a freer hand in strengthening its own defense.
The French argue that Western Europe's postwar dependency on the U.S. military partly explains the difficulties NATO faces in mustering extra forces from Europe for campaigns such as Afghanistan.
[Associated
Press; By JAMEY KEATEN]
Associated Press Writer John Leicester contributed to this report.
Copyright 2007 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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