France says to start gradual Afghan withdrawal

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he would follow the United States in starting a gradual troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, a move that could shore up his popularity before a 2012 election.

Sarkozy said troops sent for reinforcement would start returning in a time frame similar to the US force withdrawal. President Barack Obama said on Wednesday the United States would pull out 33,000 troops by late 2012.

"France will begin a gradual withdrawal of reinforcement troops sent to Afghanistan, in a proportional manner and in a calendar similar to the withdrawal of US reinforcements," Sarkozy's office said after he spoke to Obama by telephone.

France has about 4,000 troops in Afghanistan, and has seen 62 soldiers killed. It is due to start redeploying and handing over areas it controls to the Afghan military later this year.

NATO leaders agreed in November to end combat operations and hand security responsibility to Afghan forces by end-2014, and Obama vowed to start withdrawing US troops from July 2011.

Defence Minister Gerard Longuet told reporters at the Paris Air Show on Thursday that the French withdrawal would start in the coming months, but details would be kept quiet to avoid giving information to Afghanistan's Taliban insurgents.

"It will be significant for 2011 and, like the US, we will see this materialise in 2012," he said.

Later on Thursday, Longuet told France 2 television the troop withdrawal would concern about a quarter of French forces in Afghanistan over 2011 and 2012, without specifying which region the troops would be drawn from.

French troops have been involved in the US- and NATO-led Afghanistan operation since 2001 and there is growing frustration in political and public circles with the campaign.

Nearly 10 years after a Taliban government was toppled, foreign forces have been unable to deal a decisive blow that would neutralise the resurgent Islamist militant group. The Afghan government remains weak and notoriously corrupt, and billions of dollars of foreign aid have yielded meagre results.

A recent BVA opinion poll following the death of al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in May showed 55 percent of people in France were in favour of a withdrawal.