French President Francois Hollande arrived on Friday in Kabul in a bid to discuss the withdrawal of his country’s troops from Afghanistan.

French President Francois Hollande arrived on Friday in Kabul in a bid to discuss the withdrawal of his country’s troops from Afghanistan.

Hollande and Karzai during Chicago summit

It is the first visit by Hollande to the war-torn country since taking office earlier this month. He was accompanied by French defense and foreign ministers, Jean-Yves Le Drian and Laurent Fabius, and chief of army staff Admiral Edouard Guillaud.

Hollande is to hold talks with his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai, as he will hold a joint news conference.
The French head of state will also to tell French troops why he will pull them out of the war-torn country by the end of 2012.

Aides said he would also "explain himself" to French soldiers why he had decided to hasten their exit from the nearly 11-year war.

Hollande told US President Barack Obama at the G8 summit in Camp David and made it clear at the NATO summit in Chicago that he would not renege on a campaign pledge to repatriate French combat troops a year earlier than Paris planned.

There are 3,550 French soldiers in Afghanistan. Eighty-three have died since late 2001, when US-led troops invaded the country.
France provides the fifth largest contingent to the 130,000-strong US-led NATO force, but Kabul has downplayed the effect of their early departure, saying Afghan troops are ready to take over.

The calendar for the French withdrawal is now expected to be drawn up within days.