CAPE TOWN (AFP) — French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced a renegotiation of all French military accords with African nations Thursday, arguing his country no longer had a "policing" role to play on the continent.
"The French military presence in Africa is still grounded in agreements reached just after the end of colonialism, some 50 years ago!" he told a special joint sitting of parliament on the first leg of a two-day state visit.
"... what was done in 1960 no longer has the same relevance today. Their wording is obsolete. It is now unthinkable, for example, for us to be drawn into domestic conflicts," Sarkozy added, speaking in French.
This did not mean existing agreements would simply be scrapped, the French leader said, adding France would negotiate with African states "with a view to adapting the existing agreements to the realities of the present, taking full account of their wishes."
France would be open for talks with those who wished to enter into new security partnerships, Sarkozy said, adding his country would support the African Union and other regional organisations in continental peacekeeping.
Under defence deals signed between France and its former African colonies in the 1960s, France has some 10,000 soldiers stationed at four permanent military bases: in Senegal, Gabon, Djibouti and Ivory Coast. It also has troops deployed in Chad and the Central African Republic.
Sarkozy has repeatedly vowed to overhaul France's relations with Africa and said the French military presence on the continent should be kept to a minimum.
According to a French diplomat, the base in Abidjan with 900 marines and 2,400 French peacekeepers, could be the first to go "as soon as the crisis in Ivory Coast is over, that's it, we'll leave".
Before his election Sarkozy tacitly criticised the links his predecessors built with questionable regimes in former French colonial Africa.
But he has since been accused of failing to stand up for human rights in his dealings with Libya, while upholding ties with countries like Gabon and Chad, both with dubious rights records.
Sarkozy, who met Mbeki shortly after his arrival in the country on Thursday morning, also used Thursday's press conference to urge Colombia's FARC guerrillas to free French-Colombian political hostage Ingrid Betancourt "without delay," saying he would personally collect her if required.
He announced a 2.5 billion euro (3.8 billion dollar) initiative on Thursday to finance nearly 2,000 companies and create 300,000 jobs in Africa over the next five years.
And he urged Mbeki to back draft new United Nations sanctions against Iran over its uranium enrichment programme.
Sarkozy's talks with Mbeki focused partly on a crippling energy crisis in Africa's economic powerhouse and French bids for a contract to construct a pair of nuclear reactors.
The French leader was accompanied on his trip by the chairman of French nuclear giant Areva, bidding for a nuclear reactor contract as South Africa struggles to cope with a massive energy shortfall.
Earlier, French power giant Alstom announced a 1.36 billion euro (two-billion-dollar) contract for the construction of a coal-fuelled power plant in the central Mpumalanga province.
State power utility Eskom has rationed electricity use country- and sector-wide. Diamond, gold and platinum mines were shut for a week last month and thousands of workers risk losing their jobs.
Controlled blackouts have disrupted everything from manufacturing to traffic regulation in what the government has labelled a national emergency.
Mbeki and Sarkozy were to sign a raft of energy, science and technology deals, as well as partnerships on tourism and transport security ahead of South Africa's hosting of the 2010 football World Cup.
This was Sarkozy's first visit to an English-speaking African nation since taking office last June.
France is South Africa's eighth largest trading partner and a major investor. Bilateral trade reached 25 billion rand (3.3 billion US dollars, 2.2 billion euros) last year.
Sarkozy's wife of one month, former model and singer Carla Bruni, meanwhile visited a project in a Cape Town township that helps local women export products made from recycled goods.
The couple is expected to have a private meeting with former president and anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela, 89, on Friday.
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