NATO chief calls on France to stick to Afghan plan

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The head of NATO called on France on Thursday to continue its training operations in Afghanistan until a planned withdrawal, despite the killing of four French soldiers by a rogue Afghan soldier.

President Nicolas Sarkozy last week suspended all French ground operations in Afghanistan after the incident, which came amid NATO's efforts to expand the Afghan security forces so they can take over when Western combat forces leave in 2014.

"As regards the French contribution to our operation in Afghanistan, let me stress that we all agreed at the Lisbon summit to a process of transition of security responsibility to Afghan forces and an associated timeline," NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told a news conference at NATO headquarters.

"We outlined a roadmap and it's important to the success of our operations that we maintain a commitment to this agreed plan," he said referring to a decision taken at NATO's last summit, which took place in Lisbon in 2010.

The French government said on Tuesday it would wait until Afghan President Hamid Karzai visited Paris on Friday to sign a cooperation treaty before deciding whether to speed up the withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan.

France has 3,600 troops in Afghanistan as part of the 130,000-strong NATO-led force there. French troops mainly patrol Kapisa, a mountainous province near Kabul. One thousand French troops are due to leave by end-2012 and the rest by 2014.

The killings in the Taghab valley of Afghanistan's eastern Kapisa province were the latest in a series of incidents in which Afghan troops have turned on Western allies in the NATO led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

Paris has said it wants security guarantees for its troops from the Afghan authorities and clarity on how Kabul was recruiting its new soldiers.

"ISAF is determined to do all in its power to reduce the risk of such attacks happening again," Rasmussen said.

"The commander of ISAF, General Allen, is cooperating closely with the leaders of Afghanistan to improve the security of our soldiers and our instructors when they work side-by-side with their Afghan partners."

The Afghan army and police now count more than 300,000 troops and are leading around 40 percent of combat operations, Rasmussen said.

(Reporting By Sebastian Moffett; Editing by Rex Merrifield)