The foreign ministers of France and Canada will visit Afghanistan this weekend as Nato prepares to bolster its forces there.
Bernard Kouchner and Maxime Bernier will go to the Afghan capital, Kabul, and the south-eastern city of Kandahar on Saturday and Sunday.
Mr Kouchner, who was visiting Tajikistan and Turkmenistan this week, will meet in Kabul with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, government ministers and aid groups working in the country.
The visit is meant as a follow-up to the French announcement last week that it is sending 700 more troops to Afghanistan.
The trip will also help with France's preparations for an international donors conference for Afghanistan in June.
France's offer of more troops at a Nato summit in Bucharest averted a looming crisis in the alliance over Afghanistan.
Canada had threatened to pull out its 2,500 beleaguered soldiers in the southern Kandahar province unless they had reinforcements from another ally.
France's combat troops are expected to move into eastern Afghanistan, freeing up US forces to help the Canadians in the south.
France currently has 1,430 troops serving as part of the 47,000-strong Nato force in Afghanistan. The US plans to send 3,200 extra Marines to Afghanistan.
Washington has been lobbying European allies for months to send more troops to the front lines of the fight against the Taliban.