PARIS, Oct 2: Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai arrived in France on Sunday to meet President Jacques Chirac and other top officials for talks on the fight against terrorism and Afghanistan’s new parliament.

“It is a great pleasure for me to be in France. I have come to thank France for all it has done and all it is doing to help Afghanistan,” Karzai told AFP.

He was accompanied by several of his ministers, including Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah and his national security adviser Zalmay Rasul.

Abdullah said the talks would review “the very specific and historical relations between France and Afghanistan in the past, present and future.”

Regarding military ties, Abdullah said: “We welcome France to take the command of ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) in Kabul in 2006.”

“Afghanistan counts on France to help it succeed in its democratic political process. It is with the help of France that we have built our constitution. And it helps us to train our parliament,” he said.

It is the president’s first foreign visit since elections on Sept 18, the first parliamentary elections in war-shattered Afghanistan for more than three decades. The results are expected late this month.

An Afghan presidential spokesman said earlier that the fight against terrorism would also be on the agenda.

During the four-day visit, Karzai is also due to meet Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy and Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie.—AFP