German cabinet backs extra troops for Afghanistan

By Kerstin Gehmlich

BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet agreed on Tuesday to extend Germany's participation in a NATO mission in Afghanistan and raise the number of troops it can send there by 1,000, sparking a heated parliamentary debate.

Berlin has been facing pressure from allies to boost troop numbers and shift soldiers to the more dangerous south to help fight Taliban insurgents. But the peacekeeping mission is deeply unpopular with voters and has bred division on the political left ahead of a general election next year.

Under a current parliamentary mandate, Germany can send up to 3,500 soldiers to Afghanistan as part of the NATO force, which currently numbers just over 50,000. Of 976 military deaths among NATO and U.S.-led forces, Germany has lost 28 soldiers.

Merkel's conservatives (CDU/CSU) and their centre-left Social Democrat (SPD) coalition partners agreed at a cabinet meeting to seek a new mandate that would allow Berlin to send a total of 4,500 troops.

"The extension of (NATO's) ISAF mission does not mean we say 'Let's continue as before'," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told parliament.

"(The new mandate) is fitted to next year's needs: More soldiers, a focus on the training of Afghan soldiers and police, more spending on civilian reconstruction. Because we want the people in Afghanistan to feel, see and live the progress."

Steinmeier, the SPD's newly named candidate to challenge Merkel in next year's election, faces a first test in the Afghanistan vote, as he needs to rally the political left around the unpopular mandate.

Germany has expanded its role in overseas missions over the last decade, but the deployment to Afghanistan is unpopular with some on the left wing of the SPD and many voters who remain uneasy about the emergence of a strong army.  Continued...