At least 500 more German troops for Afghanistan: reports

BERLIN, Jan 25, 2010 (AFP) - Germany is considering sending at least 500 more troops to Afghanistan, reports said on Monday ahead of a crunch conference in London later this week on the future of the international mission.

The Rheinische Post regional daily said Chancellor Angela Merkel has agreed with her defence and foreign ministers on the increase together with a realignment of its mission to focus more on training Afghan security forces.


The Frankfurter Allgemeine (FAZ) daily also said that an increase of this magnitude was being mooted, as well as a further reserve of the same size. Neither report said where it got the information.

A spokesman for the defence ministry declined to comment on Monday on the reports. The German government has said previously that it would make no decision on more troops until after Thursday's conference in London.

Germany currently has around 4,300 troops in northern Afghanistan, the third biggest contingent behind the United States and Britain, and is under pressure from Washington to send more to back its "surge" of 30,000 more US soldiers.

On his way to London, Afghan President Hamid Karzai was due to hold talks with Merkel in Berlin on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Merkel was also due to hammer out a common German line for the conference with talks on Monday evening with Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, who is going to London, and with Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg.

Berlin's participation in the 110,000-strong international force fighting the Taliban insurgency is unpopular among a majority of German voters, opinion polls show.

Zu Guttenberg told the FAZ in an interview published on Monday that he wanted more training of the Afghan security forces to take place outside the safety of the German bases.

"Until now training has taken place mostly within the camp, which we call 'mentoring', and outside the camp only to a limited degree. Our new focus will be to show more presence in the field, not for fighting but to harmonise Afghan army and police training and protection for the Afghan population," he said.

"Protecting the population is the main aim, and we want to guarantee it together with the Afghan security forces, and to enable them to do so. This will only work if you have contact with the people."

He said that this didn't necessarily mean more danger for German troops.

"If you stay sitting in camp, it is conceivable that you can become more of a target in patrols. But a mission in Afghanistan can never be risk-free. We have not been open enough about this either to the public or to the troops."



(c) 2010 AFP