France is withdrawing 200 of its troops from Afghanistan Wednesday as part of a plan to pull out 1,000 troops by the end of next year.

The French military had said in September that the company of soldiers would leave Afghanistan sometime this month.

France has about 4,000 troops in Afghanistan, and President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to withdraw a quarter of the troops by the end of 2012. Most international combat troops are set to leave Afghanistan and transfer security to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.

Seventy-five French soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.