President Sarkozy will boost Nato’s struggling campaign in Afghanistan this week when he fleshes out his promise to dispatch up to 1,000 French troops to relieve pressure on the Americans, Canadians and other allied contingents.

The President’s decision, to be announced at the Nato summit in Bucharest on Wednesday, will add to the 1,500 French forces already in the Afghan zone. It is part of his policy of bringing France closer to the alliance and eventually back into the command structure from which it withdrew in 1966. His shift has heightened fierce opposition from the Left and stirred misgivings in sections of his own Gaullist camp.

“We cannot afford to lose Afghanistan,” Mr Sarkozy said in London last week. “We cannot afford to see the Taleban and al-Qaeda returning to Kabul. Whatever the cost, however difficult the victory, we cannot afford it. We must win.”

French paratroops and a handful of special forces are likely to be deployed alongside Americans in the east rather than the more violent south, where British troops are based. French commanders are said to have resisted the southern deployment as too risky. Hervé Morin, the Defence Minister, said that Mr Sarkozy had yet to take a final decision on numbers and the nature of the French contingent.

“Everything will depend on the outcome of the talks in Bucharest,” he said. “The figure has not yet been fixed.” One of the French conditions is that Nato should devote more resources to rebuilding Afghan society, bringing in judges, teachers, medical workers and civil administrators. Another is that the arrival of French forces should not prompt the departure of other contingents. French intelligence officers have been advising their country’s humanitarian organisations to expect possible attacks on their personnel once France becomes more involved in the Afghan fighting. French forces are currently based mainly near Kabul.

The probable arrival of French troops in the east will release US Marines there for duty in the tougher southern zone. The likely eastern deployment has not quelled anger from the Socialist opposition and doubts in the more Gaullist, or nationalist, sections of Mr Sarkozy’s Union for a Popular Movement.

The Socialists and some military experts say that it is folly to send troops into a campaign that is not working. The National Assembly will take no vote after what is expected to be a bitter debate tomorrow.

Jean-Louis Bianco, a senior Socialist MP, said yesterday that Mr Sarkozy was leading France into a new Vietnam: “The risk is great that we will be drawn into a trap, which is exactly what the Taleban and al-Qaeda want.” Mr Sarkozy’s pro-Atlantic move back towards Nato is also under fire from many quarters. A senior commentator on France Inter, equivalent to BBC Radio 4, said that the President was rushing to the aid of the US, preparing to “shed its blood in the sand without any hope of results”. He added: “France is taking a turn towards integration with the Anglo-Saxon world.”

The President and his supporters say that the time is right to implement a longstanding French desire to link reintegration with Nato to the American acceptance of a European Union defence system. The Americans have lately dropped their reservations over an autonomous European Security and Defence Policy and have begun to talk about it as a necessity. Mr Sarkozy hopes to be able to seal France’s return to full Nato membership after four decades of absence in time for the alliance’s 60th anniversary next year.

While the Nato leaders hope that they can achieve at least a public appearance of unison over Afghanistan, there are many other issues that are likely to expose divisions in the alliance: Kosovo, where minority Serbs are threatening to declare unilateral independence in the north; American missile defence and relations with Russia; the attempt by Ukraine and Georgia to join Nato; and what the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia should be called when it joins.

Albania, Croatia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia will be invited to join the alliance during the Bucharest summit, which will be held in the former palace of the late Communist leader, President Ceausescu. Greece refuses to allow the Former Yugoslav Republic to call itself Macedonia if it wants to be in Nato. Other options, including the Republic of Macedonia Skopje, are being studied.

The question of Ukraine and Georgia stepping closer to Nato will also invite opposition from President Putin. On his last appearance before the alliance as Russian President, he is expected to trumpet his objections, not just to these two former members of the Soviet empire cosying up to the Western alliance but also to President Bush’s ambitions to locate part of America’s missile defence network inside Poland and the Czech Republic.

It will, of course, be Mr Bush’s last Nato summit, too. When the two men meet, neither is expected to back down on either of these issues.

Troop numbers

Number of Nato troops in Afghanistan by member country:

Belgium 370
Bulgaria 420
Canada 2,500
Czech Republic 135
Denmark 780
Estonia 130
Germany 3,210
Greece 150
Hungary 230
Iceland 10
Italy 2,880
Latvia 100
Lithuania 260
Luxembourg 9
The Netherlands 1,650
Norway 495
Poland 1,100
Portugal 160
Romania 535
Slovakia 70
Slovenia 70
Spain 740
Turkey 675
United Kingdom 7,800
United States 15,000

Plus 16,000 outside Nato jurisdiction

Source: Nato

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