PARIS: French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned of “immediate consequences” if there are any attacks on French troops in the United Nations mission to Lebanon in an address to foreign ambassadors Friday. “France will not leave Lebanon, and France will not accept any enslavement of Lebanon, either from within or without,” Sarkozy told diplomats.

A roadside bomb hit a French UNIFIL patrol near the southern city of Tyre on Dec. 9, wounding five peacekeepers in the third such attack on UNIFIL forces in 2011.

Sarkozy made comments on UNIFIL during a speech to ambassadors in Paris that addressed the region more widely, including Iran’s nuclear program and the ongoing violence in Syria. Sarkozy also threatened to pull French forces from Afghanistan ahead of schedule after an Afghan soldier killed four French troops and wounded 17 Friday.

The French president warned that any foreign military intervention against Iran’s nuclear program would trigger “war and chaos” across the Middle East.

“Time is limited. France will do everything to avoid military intervention, but there is only one way to avoid it: much tougher, more decisive sanctions,” Sarkozy said.

He called on all countries to freeze Iranian central bank assets and halt imports of Iranian oil.

“Those who do not want to reinforce sanctions against a regime which is leading its country into disaster by seeking a nuclear weapon will bear responsibility for the risk of a military breakdown,” he warned.

“And I say to our Chinese and Russian friends: Help us guarantee peace in the world ... we need you,” he added.

“A military intervention would not solve the problem but would unleash war and chaos in the Middle East and perhaps, alas, the world,” he warned.

France has been one of the loudest Western voices pushing for economic sanctions to force Iran to abandon its nuclear program, which Paris fears could lead to the Islamic regime developing an atomic bomb.

However, it remains opposed to calls from some hawks in the United States and Israel for airstrikes against Iranian facilities.

Iran insists its nuclear fuel enrichment program is designed to produce fuel for reactors in future civilian power stations and for medical isotopes.

Britain and the United States have tightened their economic sanctions while the European Union is to meet next week and is expected to approve new measures against Iranian oil exports and the financial sector.

Sarkozy also declared to the audience of diplomats that France would not stand silently by and allow Syrian leader Bashar Assad to put down the pro-democracy revolt in his country.

“We cannot accept the ferocious repression by the Syrian leadership of its people, a repression that has led the country into chaos, and a chaos that will help extremists of all kinds,” he said.

The uprising against the regime began in March last year, with Assad unleashing a brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protestrrs that has killed some 5,000 people in the last 10 months, according to a U.N. count. France has been one of the loudest voices calling for Assad to step down and for U.N. action.

Last month under mounting international pressure, Assad agreed to allow observers from the Arab League monitor the crisis, and pledged to send his troops back to their barracks. But the violence has continued.

Separately, Sarkozy warned that he may accelerate the French withdrawal from Afghanistan after an Afghan soldier killed four unarmed French troops during a sports session inside a base Friday. Sarkozy suspended French military training and joint combat operations and dispatched Defense Minister Gerard Longuet to probe Friday’s attack in which at least 15 French soldiers were wounded, eight seriously.

“The French army stands alongside its allies but we cannot accept that a single one of our soldiers be wounded or killed by our allies, it’s unacceptable,” Sarkozy said.

“If security conditions are not clearly established, then the question of an early return of the French army will be asked,” he said.

A security source said the shooting happened as “the French were just finishing their sports session” at the Gwam base.

“The soldiers were not protected. They could not defend themselves. He fired at the group. Then they neutralized him,” the source said.

France has about 3,600 soldiers serving in the country, mainly in the provinces of Kabul and Kapisa, the scene of Friday’s shooting.

Their deployment is deeply unpopular in France, and Sarkozy is facing a tough re-election battle in less than three months.

The French force currently in Afghanistan will be reduced to 3,000 by late 2012, with 200 due to leave in March. NATO is due to hand security over to Afghan forces before withdrawing all its combat troops by the end of 2014.

Training Afghan forces and accompanying them into battle against rebels is the core of the French mission within the NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan, the force having already scaled down its own operations.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai sent his condolences to the French people over the deaths, saying relations between the two countries had “always been based on honesty, which makes Afghans happy.”