PARIS, Feb 28: French President Jacques Chirac told visiting Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai on Thursday he had doubts over deploying the international security force in Afghanistan beyond the capital Kabul.

Chirac said the issue of extending the mandate of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to other parts of Afghanistan was being discussed with the United Nations and in Kabul.

“We will see what will be appropriate to do,” Chirac said at a joint press conference with Karzai, but added that he was “not convinced that this is the right solution,” citing a risk of interfering in Afghanistan’s internal affairs.

The ISAF was set up with a six-month mandate under a UN Security Council resolution adopted December 20, and currently numbers about 3,000 mostly British and French troops, with some 600 Germans.

Chirac also said France accepted a proposal to lengthen the mandate for the 520 French soldiers in the ISAF, and that he was willing to consider increasing the number of French troops.

Karzai, who arrived Thursday at the head of a top-level delegation for a two-day visit, said his request for ISAF to be extendex outside Kabul did not necessarily mean there was no security in the provinces.

“Our people want to be sure of the international commitment that the world would not leave them again,” he said. “It does not mean we want them for our physical protection.”

But he said would not have been possible to topple the hardline Taliban regime that ruled for five years and Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network without outside military help.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called Thursday for the ISAF mandate to be extended from its June expiry date.

Addressing the German parliament in Berlin, Annan said peacekeepers “should never be withdrawn abruptly or prematurely.”

“Peacekeepers should leave as soon as they can, once they have helped create the conditions under which a country can maintain stability,” said Annan.

Karzai said earlier he had come to Paris with high hopes that France would lend a sympathetic ear to his request for a boost in ISAF numbers.—AFP