France Offers Troops To Fight Taliban

President Sarkozy of France offered a battalion of troops to fight the Taliban insurgency in eastern Afghanistan, heeding calls by America and other allies for France to take on a frontline role. Mr. Sarkozy's offer of 700 additional French troops will allow America to divert soldiers to Afghanistan's south, where Canada had threatened to pull out its 2,500 troops in the absence of reinforcements.

"If we want to pull out one day, we have to win today," told a press conference at a NATO summit in Bucharest yesterday.

President Bush hailed France's troop offer, which came after weeks of finger-pointing provoked concern that NATO was fracturing into countries willing to fight and countries determined to stay out of violent confrontations with the Taliban.

America ousted the Taliban after the attacks of September 11, 2001, then successively handed the fighting to NATO as Mr. Bush shifted his attention to Iraq.