French President Nicolas Sarkozy who arrived on a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Saturday held talks with his Afghan counterpart, the Afghan presidential palace stated.

Sarkozy on his first visit to Afghanistan since taking office in May met Saturday morning with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and assured him of France's support.

"Nicolas Sarkozy assured President Karzai of his government's long-term political and military support for the people of Afghanistan," a statement released by the presidential palace said.

The statement said that both leaders agreed that insecurity and drug cultivation were serious challenges for Afghanistan and called for a greater struggle against terrorism and narcotics.

According to the statement, Sarkozy was expected to meet with French troops stationed in capital Kabul.

French Defence Minister Herve Morin, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and State Secretary for Human Rights Rama Yade accompanied him, the statement added.

About 1,300 French soldiers are deployed in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Most of the French soldiers are stationed around Kabul while some of them are in the southern province of Kandahar, where six French Mirage jets are based.

In November, Sarkozy pledged a stronger French commitment to the fight against the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban movement that was ousted after the September 2001 terrorist attacks on the US. The Taliban government had given refuge to the planners of the attack, the al-Qaeda terrorist network. Taliban supporters still remain as a guerrilla force in the country.

Paris as well as Berlin are under pressure from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the United States to deploy their troops further into the volatile southern regions, where Taliban insurgents are most entrenched.