The Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, is in Britain to meet David Cameron following France's decision to speed up the withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan.
They will leave by the end of 2013 - a year earlier than planned.
President Karzai and Mr Cameron will sign an agreement setting out how their two countries will work together after British combat troops withdraw in 2014.
Mr Karzai said in Paris on Friday that Afghan troops would replace the French.
He said: "France and other allied countries have helped Afghanistan considerably in the past 10 years.
"Afghanistan, because of that help, is now ready to take more and more responsibility."
The BBC's world affairs correspondent, David Loyn, says Britain has twice as many troops in Afghanistan as any other European nation but not enough to fill the gap left by the French.
London is the third stop in Mr Karzai's journey, following Italy and France.
Our correspondent says Mr Karzai will brief Mr Cameron on the state of peace talks with the Taliban, which are just starting.
Mr Cameron is expected to sign an agreement to build an officer training college in Afghanistan, based on the British Army's Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst.
The agreement will also commit Britain to continue providing aid support for Afghanistan after British combat troops withdraw.
Earlier this week Mr Sarkozy announced the earlier pull-out from Afghanistan, which followed the deaths of four French soldiers in Kapisa province.
France currently has about 3,600 soldiers in Afghanistan.
Paris wants to bring home 1,000 of its soldiers this year, leaving only a few hundred after 2013.
In a survey published on Thursday, 84% of French people said they supported the full withdrawal of troops by the end of this year.
Mr Sarkozy's Socialist opponent in this year's presidential elections, Francois Hollande, has pledged to bring troops home this year if elected.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/uk-16771301
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