PARIS, Dec 5: French defence authorities say that the way troops of the New Afghan Army (NAA) are being trained, it is “highly unrealistic” for Afghanistan to think it will be able to achieve a target of 60,000 troops by 2009, especially since fewer than 2,000 soldiers have been recruited to date.

The troops have been undergoing training since May — following the Bonn accords of last year — by instructors from France and the United States at the Kabul Military Training Centre (KMTC).

The way the training is presently undertaken, say the French, the NAA can count on having an army of no more than 20,000 troops by the target date of 2009. Then too, add the French, the few troops that have been inducted remain highly undisciplined, with many of the men still unable to march in close-order military drill.

France says that if Afghanistan wants to be able to come anywhere close to reaching the goal of a full-fledged army, it will have to significantly change the way in which the military are formed.

French defence authorities in Paris say that they plan to propose to Afghanistan that Kabul henceforth take on a greater responsibility in the training of the NAA, and that France limit itself to training not the Afghan troops themselves, but the instructors who will in turn form the new Afghan recruits.