French presidential front-runner Nicolas Sarkozy has said that he would contemplate pulling France's troops out of Afghanistan if elected.

He also denounced the United States' refusal to cap carbon emissions and proposed taxing imports from China because it too has refused to limit greenhouse gases.

Sarkozy also came out in support of Bronislaw Geremek, a Polish European Union lawmaker embroiled in a dispute with authorities in his home country over his refusal to declare he did not cooperate with communist-era secret police.

Sarkozy, the governing conservatives' candidate, said he supported outgoing President Jacques Chirac's decision to pull 200 French special forces out of Afghanistan late last year. He said he would continue that policy if elected in the May 6 runoff vote.

The long-term presence of French troops in that part of the world does not look definitive to me,'' he said in an interview with France-2 television. Some 1,100 French soldiers are currently part of the 38,000-strong NATO force in Afghanistan.

Sarkozy, who is known for his pro-American stance, stressed the importance of good relations with the United States, but said he could 'not understand' the U.S. government's unwillingness to sign the Kyoto Protocol limiting greenhouse emissions.

Sarkozy and his rival, Socialist Segolene Royal, were both reaching out to voters in the center of France's political spectrum, following a strong third-place showing of centrist Francois Bayrou in last week's first round.

Royal, who is bidding to become France's first woman president, agreed Thursday to a televised debate with Bayrou. However, the debate, scheduled for Saturday, appeared to fall through when the television channel pulled out, citing organizational difficulties.

Sarkozy, who finished ahead of Royal in the first round and needs fewer of Bayrou's voters than she does, was scornful of the Royal-Bayrou matchup, calling it ``a rather ridiculous tragicomedy.''

Sarkozy and Royal are to face off in their own May 2 televised debate. Sarkozy has said he would not debate with Bayrou because he did not qualify for the runoff.

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