Hamid Karzai backs US drawdown of troops from Afghanistan guardian.co.uk

Afghanistan's security forces are growing in stature and can be entrusted with securing the country's future after the withdrawal of US troops, according to president Hamid Karzai.

Responding to Barack Obama's announcement that a third of US troops in Afghanistan would be withdrawn by September next year, Karzai said the US president had made the right decision and thanked the international troops for their support.

"The Afghan people's trust in the Afghan army and police is growing every day and preservation of this land is the job of Afghans," Karzai told a news conference.

"I welcome the decision of the US president today on pulling out [some of] ... its troops from Afghanistan and I consider this a right decision for the interest of both countries."

But the Afghan Taliban said the plan to withdraw 10,000 US troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year was only symbolic and that more serious steps would be needed "to stop this pointless bloodshed".

"Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan once again wants to make it clear that the solution for the Afghan crisis lies in the full withdrawal of all foreign troops immediately and [while] this does not happen, our armed struggle will increase from day to day," the Taliban said in an emailed statement.

The Nato secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said "the tide is turning" in Afghanistan, with the Taliban under increasing pressure and government security forces getting stronger. In this context, he said, the drawdown of troops was the "natural result".

Rasmussen said Obama's decision was taken in close consultation with the allies and said the handover to Afghan security was still on track to be completed in 2014.

France followed Obama's televised announcement by issuing its own statement on the future of the 4,000 French troops in Afghanistan.

The office of the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, said there would be a progressive withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, who would follow a timetable comparable to that of the staggered pullout of American troops, starting this summer.

Sarkozy was one of five leaders Obama called before his speech to inform them of his decision.

The French statement said: "Given the progress we have seen [in Afghanistan], France will begin a gradual withdrawal of reinforcement troops sent to Afghanistan, in a proportional manner and in a calendar comparable to the withdrawal of American reinforcements."

French troops have been involved in the US and Nato-led Afghanistan operation since 2001, with 62 soldiers killed, and there has been growing frustration within political circles in the country over the long campaign.

The German foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, welcomed Obama's announcement and expressed his hope Germany's contingent of 4,900 troops would be reduced before the end of the year.

Germany has yet to settle on details of its own pullback but Westerwelle said "the prospect of withdrawal is now becoming concrete".

He described the US president's speech as a "clear commitment" to the internationally agreed strategy of gradually handing over responsibility for security to Afghan forces and said: "It is also our aim to be able to reduce our own German troop contingent for the first time at the end of this year."