French, Canadian ministers meet in Afghanistan

Canadian and French officials reaffirmed their support for the fight against the Taliban after meetings with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday.

Canadian Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier and his French counterpart, Bernard Kouchner, also met in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

Afterward, Bernier thanked France for its announcement last week that it's sending 700 more troops to bolster its 1,430 troops serving as part of the 47,000-strong NATO force in Afghanistan.

 "Without security we cannot have economic development," he said. "It's a long-term goal but it's a goal that can be achieved by the international community."

France's offer of more troops at a NATO summit in Bucharest averted a looming crisis in the alliance over Afghanistan. Canada had threatened to pull out its soldiers in southern Kandahar province unless NATO allies sent reinforcements.

France's combat troops are expected to move into eastern Afghanistan, freeing up U.S. forces to help the Canadians in the south.

Kouchner and Bernier said the fight in Afghanistan goes beyond the battlefront. They said it was important to promote human rights and good governance, and to train more Afghan security forces.

Developing a professional Afghan national army is a priority for Canadian soldiers, said Bernier.

"That's a goal that we're going to do [to] be sure that in 2011, the Afghan national army will be able to assume their own security … in the south," he said.

Their meetings came as fighting flared in southwestern Afghanistan. There were reports that NATO soldiers killed two dozen Taliban fighters during one battle in Zabul province late Friday.

Separately, a suicide bomber struck a road construction crew in southwestern Afghanistan, killing two Indian engineers and their Afghan driver, authorities said.