German Chancellor called on Thursday to NATO countries to respect the 2014 timetable of Afghan withdrawal, as US President agreed with the alliance Chief to focus on Afghanistan during the upcoming NATO summit.

German Chancellor called on Thursday to NATO countries to respect the 2014 timetable of Afghan withdrawal, as US President agreed with the alliance Chief to focus on Afghanistan during the upcoming NATO summit.

"The principle which applies for the German government is: we entered (Afghanistan) together, we will leave together”, Angela Merkel said after comments by French president-elect Francois Hollande that he wanted to pull French troops out this year.

Merkel was addressing lawmakers in the Bundestag lower house of parliament ahead of the summit by NATO allies in the US city of Chicago on May 20-21.

"It will be a question during the NATO summit in Chicago of confirming in a concrete way the timetable fixed in 2010 in Lisbon for a withdrawal by the end of 2014", Merkel added.
"The good news is that the process of handing over responsibility (to the Afghan authorities) is progressing as we had planned", Merkel said.

France has 3,400 troops in Afghanistan. It is the   fifth largest contingent in the 130,000-strong US-led NATO force in the Asian country, while Germany is the third biggest troop supplier after the United States and Britain.

AFGHANISTAN MAIN FOCUS OF SUMMIT

Earlier on Wednesday, US President Barack Obama met with NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, as they agreed to focus on the Afghan conflict at the meeting, the White House said.

At an Oval Office meeting, Obama and Rasmussem agreed the summit would be a time "reaffirm allied commitment to the transition framework" and a move from a combat role to support for "sufficient and sustainable Afghan forces".

At the summit, NATO will be faced with the thorny issue posed by Hollande’s pledge to speed up his country's pullout from Afghanistan.