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France, Germany refuse more troops to Afghanistan

Wednesday, December 02, 2009 PARIS: France and Germany refused US requests to immediately promise more troops for Afghanistan, frustrating President Barack Obama's hopes that allies would match his troop surge. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, terming Obama’s new Afghan policy encouraging, stressed on the world community to support it. However, he said that France would wait until January 28 International Conference on Afghanistan in London for taking any decision, affirmative or negative, on sending more troops to Afghanistan.German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her country would also wait until after the London Afghanistan Conference and the decision to send more German troops to Afghanistan could not be taken before that. She said that Afghanistan security issue could not be solved by military means only.

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