France's Hollande supports Palestinian state

The newly-elected French president Francois Hollande has apparently pledged full support for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state living alongside Israel. In a presidential campaign booklet of the French Socialist Party, which included the president’s action plans, Hollande said he would present initiatives to resume negotiations and achieve peace and security for both Israel and the Palestinians. On Afghanistan, Hollande stressed that he would pull out all French troops operating in the Asian nation before the end of this year. During his five-year presidential term, Hollande promised he would work on developing relations between France and the South Mediterranean basin countries based on economic, democratic and cultural development projects. Hollande beat incumbent centre-right president Nicholas Sarkozy to become France's first socialist leaer in decades. He will swear office in May