President Francois Hollande of France has strongly pitched for India's full-fledged membership at the UN Security Council. Calling India a power of peace, Hollande said the security of the world needs India's presence.

Delivering the Madhavrao Scindia Memorial Lecture to a distinguished audience at the Nehru Memorial Library in New Delhi, he praised on Indian democracy, its secularism and its most popular cinema which is celebrating its 100th year.

Quoting Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, the French President said the French Revolution had shown the way to the countries, which fought for independence and said words like independent and justice no longer belong to his country alone.

Lamenting that only 3,000 of the 17 million students in India come to France for higher studies, he called for bridging the gap to make more Indian students travel to France for studies.

Observing that India is concerned about the future of Afghanistan after 2014 when NATO forces would leave, Hollande said Afghans themselves should decide about their future.

In this context, he asked Pakistan to fulfill its commitment to accomplish the objective.

Francois Hollande also asked India to convince Iran to enter into serious negotiations and respect international obligations with regard to nuclear non-proliferation.

France is a key player in the P5+1 talks with Iran on its contentious nuclear programme.