PARIS, March 1: Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai ended his first official visit to Europe with mixed results Friday, leaving Paris without support for a larger peacekeeping force.

Karzai urged President Jacques Chirac to back his plea for the mandate of the International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF) to be expanded to patrol outside Afghanistan’s capital Kabul.

But French officials proved just as cautious as their German and British colleagues, and Karzai had to content himself with a vow from Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine that French troops at least they would remain beyond the end of next month.

“We intend to remain durably at the side of our Afghan friends in the ways that interest them, it’s for them to decide,” Vedrine said after the two men met here. “France has decided to prolong the presence of its force in Kabul.”—AFP