U.S., France discuss Afghan war, avoid troops issue

A U.S. soldier with Hammer Company, Scouts and Snipers, 32nd Infantry Regiment is surrounded by Afghan boys during a foot patrol in Sarkani village, Kunar Province, eastern Afghanistan February 9, 2009.

PARIS (Reuters) - U.S. regional military chief General David Petraeus and French Defense Minister Herve Morin discussed the security situation in Afghanistan on Monday but stayed away from the issue of France sending more troops there.

U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to deploy thousands more troops and ask his reluctant European partners to help reinforce the NATO mission fighting a growing Taliban insurgency.

"That wasn't part of the discussion today," Petraeus, head of U.S. Central Command, told reporters in Paris when asked if he had pressed Morin on the question of reinforcements.

"What we were doing was discussing how we perceive the 20 countries in the central command area of responsibility."

He said they talked about the situation in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, as well as other issues such as operations to fight piracy and weapons-smuggling.

European leaders are wary of alienating voters by committing more troops to the unpopular war in Afghanistan.

Morin has repeatedly said there are no plans to add to France's 2,800 soldiers there, which make it the fourth-largest contributor to the operation after the United States, Britain and Germany.

"France's effort counts for more than just the number of men on the ground, first of all because they are better than the others," Morin said at a joint news conference with Petraeus after their meeting.