Pledges of support from French and German leaders

War on Terrorism: European Reaction

France and Germany, Europe's most powerful nations, last night offered their full backing to the United States- led military operation against targets in Afghanistan.

In a nationally televised address President Jacques Chirac said for the first time that France would be involved. "Our forces will take part," he said.

France last week agreed to open its airspace to US military aircraft and said its navy would provide logistical support to US naval groups in the Indian Ocean. The French Defence Minister, Alain Richard, said that "in a matter of days" France would be an active partner in the US offensive.

The German Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, was also quick to offer his government's "unreserved backing" to the US action against what he called "terrorist targets" in Afghanistan. "There is no alternative to this struggle, which we must win and will win," Mr Schröder said after a meeting with his security council. "It is completely clear that we must proceed together."

Like Mr Chirac, Mr Schröder was informed by George Bush by telephone – an hour ahead of the strikes – that a US offensive on Afghanistan was "imminent".

"Germany, together with France, will in due course make its contribution as soon as a concrete request comes and of course in line with what we are objectively able to do," Mr Schröder said.

Germany has become a focus of the worldwide investigation into the hijackings because three of the suspected suicide pilots lived and studied in Hamburg.

But participation in military action is a particularly sensitive issue in Germany and requires parliamentary approval of any deployment of troops abroad.

The Greens, who are the junior partners in the ruling coalition, are deeply divided over whether to approve German involvement. Senior regional Greens delegates voted on Saturday to back military strikes, in a decision likely to avert a government rift for now.

The European Union gave strong backing to the military action saying it had been assured that the strikes would be targeted and seek to avoid "innocent victims".

"The presidency of the European Union wishes to ... reaffirm its entire solidarity with the United States, the United Kingdom and the other countries engaged in these operations," the Belgian Prime Minister, Guy Verhofstadt, whose country holds the presidency of the 15-nation EU, said.