(Recasts with further details) PARIS, Feb 26 (Reuters) - France may send hundreds of ground troops to help NATO fight insurgents in east Afghanistan, Le Monde newspaper said on Tuesday. Such a move could get a mixed reaction from NATO allies such as the United States which want France and other European allies to deploy troops in the south of the country, where the fight against Taliban and al Qaeda insurgents has been toughest. Canada sent officials to Paris this month to sound out a possible French offer of support for its 2,500 troops in south Afghanistan, but Le Monde said France had its sights elsewhere. "Their (the troops') destination would be zones of potentially fierce fighting, preferably the eastern region of Afghanistan close to the tribal areas of Pakistan," it said. While the east is regarded as more dangerous than the relatively calm capital Kabul -- where most of France's 1,900 troops under NATO comand are based -- the fiercest battles have been in southern provinces of Kandahar, Uruzgan and Helmand. A presidential spokesman declined to confirm or deny the newspaper report. "The president has not made a decision. We are in discussion with our partners, inside NATO but not exclusively," he said. An alliance source said the plan was one of a number of options France was discussing with allies ahead of an April summit in Bucharest at which alliance leaders will look to give new impetus to the security mission. Under the plan, the deployment of French soldiers to the east would free up U.S. forces there to go and help Canadian troops fighting insurgents in the south. "Our understanding is that there is no decision on this. There is a long way to go until Bucharest," said the source. France, Germany, Italy and Spain have troops in relatively secure areas and have refused to deploy them south. Washington is heading a campaign for what it calls a fairer sharing of the burden in the fight against Taliban insurgents. Britain, Canada, Poland and others have backed the U.S. demand. In what would be a major blow to the 43,000-strong NATO mission, Canada has warned that it will not renew its deployment past 2009 unless other NATO allies come up with 1,000 troops to support its operation in Kandahar. Since his election in May, President Nicolas Sarkozy has sent more combat aircraft to Kandahar and beefed up French efforts to train the Afghan army in what some analysts have said is a policy more closely aligned to that of the United States. Early last year, France withdrew 200 special forces soldiers who had been operating under U.S. command in Afghanistan, but Le Monde said Paris was now expected to sanction the return of the special forces. About 50 remained to train Afghan commandos. (Reporting by Andrew Dobbie in Paris and Mark John in Brussels; Editing by Ralph Boulton)
Medics in the Pakistani border town of Chaman tend to a wounded Afghan after a suicide attack in the southern Afghan town of Spin Boldak February 18, 2008. More than 20 ...
