But deployment location yet to be decided

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LONDON - French President Nicolas Sarkozy will tell Britain that France will send 1,000 more troops to Afghanistan but it's unclear where in the troubled country will they be deployed.

A London newspaper cited unnamed senior ministers as saying Sarkozy wants to demonstrate his commitment to the NATO alliance's Afghan mission during his two-day visit to London, which begins Wednesday.

One minister was quoted as saying that Britain's Defence Ministry has made a working assumption that Sarkozy will announce that "slightly more than 1,000 troops" are to be deployed to eastern Afghanistan.

But the report added: "President Sarkozy is said to be still deciding whether the extra troops should be sent to the south to fight alongside the Canadians or east to the border with Pakistan. "In the latter scenario, the presence of French troops would allow the U.S. troops currently policing the border to be sent south."

Canada recently pledged to extend its mission in Afghanistan to 2011 but demanded that NATO allies provide an additional 1,000 troops for the southern Kandahar region that has been a hotbed of insurgent attacks.

Canada has about 2,500 troops on the Afghan mission, most of them in Kandahar. Eighty-one Canadian soldiers and a diplomat have been killed in Afghanistan since 2002.

The refusal of key European allies -- such as Germany, Italy and Spain -- to join forces from Canada, Britain, the United States and the Netherlands who are leading the fight in the south has led to months of ugly infighting within NATO.

France is widely expected to boost its role in Afghanistan beyond the 1,900 soldiers current there at a NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania, on April 2-4.

The Times said Sarkozy is expected to fully brief British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on his plans during the London visit, but the formal announcement may not be made until the summit.

British and French defence ministries and the presidential Elysee Palace declined to comment on the report when contacted Saturday.

The Times said commanders in Afghanistan have been saying for some time that they are three battalions short of what is required in Regional Command South, which covers Helmand and Kandahar provinces where British and Canadian troops are fighting.

The Americans are in the process of sending 2,200 marines to the south. They will be used in special operations along the border and in places such as Musa Qala in Helmand, the Times said.

Another 1,000 U.S. marines will embed with the Afghan police. The marines will be fully supported and have their own fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters.