Sarkozy travelled to Kabul with his Defence Minister Herve Morin and Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner for a lightning visit to show support after the 10 were killed and 21 others wounded in a battle with Taliban rebels this week.

It was the deadliest toll in ground fighting for international forces sent to Afghanistan after the Taliban regime was routed in late 2001, and the heaviest for French troops in 25 years.

"I came to tell you that the work that you are doing here is essential," Sarkozy told the troops at their base at Camp Warehouse on the outskirts of Kabul.

"The best way to be loyal to your comrades is to continue your work, is to raise your heads, to be professional."

Sarkozy visited a morgue where the 10 bodies were held before being repatriated, and spoke to survivors of the battle, including some of the wounded being treated in a camp hospital.

He said that even after the shock of Monday's deadly ambush about 50 kilometres (30 miles) east of Kabul, he was convinced French troops needed to be in Afghanistan alongside those of other nations in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

"Why are we here? It is because here we play a part in the freedom of the the world. Here we are fighting against terrorism," he said.

Sarkozy later met Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who expressed his condolences and said a recent surge in extremist attacks in Afghanistan showed that more attention had to be paid to the threat of terrorism.

Karzai also reiterated calls for his international partners to focus on extremist sanctuaries he says are based primarily across the border in Pakistan.

"The rise in violence is attributed directly to our lack of attention -- the allies and all of us -- to the sanctuaries, to the training grounds, to the financial resources, of terrorists and the Taliban," Karzai said.

"And unless we do that, we will continue to suffer," he said.

There are nearly 70,000 international soldiers in Afghanistan, most of them in the 40-nation ISAF, to help the government tackle a growing insurgency led by the Taliban who are linked with Al-Qaeda.

France's contribution of 3,000 troops to ISAF is one of the largest, after those of the United States, Britain and Germany.

After just five hours in the country, Sarkozy and his ministers returned to France, with a separate plane leaving later carrying the dead troops.

Sarkozy has pushed for an expansion in France's military role in the country despite polls showing public opinion does not support such a move.

He announced French reinforcements to Afghanistan at a NATO summit in April -- drawing fierce criticism at home from left-wing opponents who saw the move as a sign of French alignment with US policy.

There were new barbs in France Wednesday, with politicians and commentators questioning why the country had got itself involved in the Afghan "quagmire."

The French army and ISAF in Kabul meanwhile refused to comment on a report in Le Monde newspaper quoting French soldiers who had survived the ambush saying they came under fire from NATO planes that had come to help them escape.

The soldiers also reportedly complained they had to wait for four hours before any backup was sent.

In Brussels, a NATO official said the alliance would "look into the report", while the Pentagon said it had no information that close US air support resulted in French casualties.

There was meanwhile new violence in Afghanistan Wednesday, with a US-led coalition soldier killed in fighting with insurgents in the west and more than a dozen rebels killed in the east, according to the force.

With the last death, 177 foreign soldiers have died in Afghanistan this year, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Most have died in combat with insurgents.

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