Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday Germany would continue to focus its military efforts in relatively calm northern Afghanistan but added it could help out in the insurgency-hit south if needed.
Merkel was in Afghanistan on a surprise one-day visit that comes amid calls for Germany's 3,000 troops here to play a greater role in Nato-led operations in the south, where other nations are struggling against Taliban rebels.
"Germany has taken over responsibility in the north of Afghanistan and I think the most important (thing) is to pursue the efforts we have begun," Merkel told reporters after talks with President Hamid Karzai. The country is also contributing Tornado planes to carry out reconnaissance work in Afghanistan, she said.
And "whenever troops will need help in the south, we will of course provide help for the south," Merkel said, without making it clear what degree of assistance she referred to. "But I strongly believe that we should stick to our concept that has been worked out in order not to weaken our forces in the north," she said.
Germany has been criticised for keeping the bulk of its forces in the north while countries such as Britain, Canada and the United States face some of the most intense fighting in decades in the south.
Southern Afghanistan sees the worst of an insurgency led by the Taliban movement that was driven from government in late 2001 for harbouring al Qaeda after the 9/11 attacks on the United States. Violence has grown in the north but the area is free from the daily violence gripping the south and east.
Germany's role in Afghanistan is controversial at home, with a survey last month finding that only 29 percent of Germans supported the mission here. The German parliament nonetheless last month extended Berlin's military engagement in Afghanistan for a year, passing a new mandate that sets a ceiling of 3,500 troops.
Most of Germany's troops are part of the 37-nation, Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) helping the fledgling Afghan security forces battle the insurgency. The country also has about 200 elite soldiers with a separate US-led coalition that focuses largely on rounding up Taliban, al Qaeda and other militants.
Karzai thanked Merkel for her country's support for his fragile country and said Germany was one of Afghanistan's most trusted friends. "Especially in the six years in which Afghanistan has started a new life, Germany has helped us with its soldiers and with its people's hard work," he told reporters.
Merkel also met with the UN special representative, Tom Koenigs, and the commander of ISAF, General Dan McNeill, as well as the head of the German forces in Afghanistan, General Dieter Warnecke. She was due to meet some of the 1,400 German troops in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif before leaving Afghanistan.
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