US says French pullout from Afghanistan coordinated

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The United States said Friday that France's announced plans to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan a year early was a "consulted and managed effort" with its allies.

Amid an uproar over the killing last week of unarmed troops, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said after meeting Afghan President Hamid Karzai that France would complete its pullout from the NATO-led mission at the end of 2013.

US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland stressed the importance of a coordinated withdrawal even though US and other NATO countries intend to withdraw their combat forces by 2014.

"We obviously want to continue to work together to ensure that this is implemented in the way that is consistent with the efforts of all of NATO to give increasing authority to the Afghans and that it is smooth," Nuland said.