Sarkozy arrives in Afghanistan

KABUL - French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Afghanistan on Saturday for talks with Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai and to meet French troops serving under NATO's command, a presidential palace official said.

Details of Sarkozy's expected talks with Karzai were not immediately available.

France has stationed troops in Afghanistan since late 2001, when U.S.-led forces drove the Taliban government from power.

It is Sarkozy's first trip to Afghanistan since he became president last year and coincides with an increase in violence in the Asian country over the past two years, the bloodiest period since the Taliban's overthrow.

French forces are mostly stationed in the relatively secure capital Kabul and France has been repeatedly urged by NATO members to dispatch its forces to eastern and southern areas where Taliban militants are most active.