President Nicolas Sarkozy held a crisis meeting with top ministers and the head of the armed forces earlier on Thursday to discuss new security measures after five French soldiers were killed in a suicide attack in the Tagab valley on Wednesday.

“There is a new context and to face this we need new security measures,” Sarkozy said.

“The most complex period is the transition and withdrawal,” Sarkozy said after the July 14 military parade. “We are not abandoning the Afghans, but moving from military help to an economic and educational help.”

Sarkozy, who visited troops in the region of Surobi, east of Kabul on Tuesday, detailed his plan to withdraw 1,000 troops by the end of 2012, ahead of a complete pullout in 2014.

Speaking at a news briefing, Defense Minister Gerard Longuet said the Taleban would try to take advantage of the transition period by radicalising its military strategy.

“The plan must take into consideration our enemy who is listening to what we are doing and is adapting its military approach,” Longuet said. “Our opponents are on the defensive and have chosen terrorism as their (principle) method.”

The chief of staff of the ground forces, General Elrick Irastorza, will be sent in the coming hours to Afghanistan to define the plan by end of next week, Armed Forces chief Edouard Guillaud told reporters.

Violence in Afghanistan is at its worst since US-backed Afghan forces overthrew the Taleban in late 2001. More than 2,500 foreign troops have died in Afghanistan since the war began almost 10 years ago.

A commando was killed on Thursday, taking the death toll in 2011 to 18, already France’s biggest yearly loss in the 10-year operation.

BAD SIGNAL

“This is not a good signal because it shows that our troops will now be a lot less offensive because we are leaving,” military analyst Jean-Dominique Merchet said. “Clearly the insurgents now have the upper hand.”

When asked whether the new measures would follow in the foot steps of US troops that have drastically reduced patrols, Longuet said that falling back was not often the best option.

“The objective is to strengthen the Afghan security forces and it is this strengthening that the general will establish,” Longuet said. “It’s rare that pulling back is the answer ... However, we must define objectives that the Afghan troops can realistically achieve.”

Sarkozy, who followed US President Barack Obama’s June announcement of faster troop withdrawal, said the pull out would begin this year with soldiers only based in Kapisa province.

Wednesday’s bombing was the worst since 2008 when 10 soldiers were killed in a battle against Taleban insurgents.

France has 4,000 troops in Afghanistan and has now seen 70 of its soldiers killed since it joined the US and NATO-led Afghanistan operations in 2001.

The quicker pullout could give Sarkozy a boost ahead of the April 2012 presidential election, where he faces a tough battle from the left-wing opposition to win a second term.

An opinion poll after the death of former Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in May showed more than half of French people support a withdrawal from the nearly decade-old military campaign against Taleban insurgents.