Germany plans to boost Afghan troop limit by 1,000

BERLIN (Reuters) - Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung said on Tuesday that Germany planned to increase the number of troops it can send to Afghanistan by 1,000 later this year.

Germany has been under pressure from NATO partners, particularly the United States, to bolster its troop contingent in Afghanistan and shift soldiers from the north to the more dangerous south to help battle Taliban insurgents.

Speaking at a news conference in Berlin, Jung said the government wanted to raise the ceiling on German soldiers in the country to provide more scope to react to threats.

"The increase is necessary to give us more flexibility to respond to challenges," Jung said.

A parliamentary mandate which expires in October foresees a maximum of 3,500 German troops in Afghanistan and the number of soldiers on the ground has hovered close to that limit for months.

Jung said the government wanted the new mandate to run until December 2009, a move that would keep the politically sensitive issue out of next year's election campaign.

The decision to raise the troop limit is likely to fuel a debate in Germany, where some opposition parties are critical of the mission and polls show a majority of the population is also skeptical. Any increase in troop numbers would need approval by the Bundestag lower house of parliament.

Roughly 60,000 foreign troops are in Afghanistan, most of them part of the NATO-led International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF), but security has deteriorated in recent years.

Some 6,000 people were killed in 2007, the deadliest year since U.S.-led and Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in 2001.

At the weekend, German NATO General Egon Ramms said alliance members needed to send an additional 5,000 to 6,000 troops urgently or risk prolonging the presence of Western forces in the country by years.

German troops would remain focused on the north, Jung said, although the new mandate would allow for the presence of about 40 communications specialists in the south, a mission that Germany would share with the Danish.

Germany plans to reduce the upper limit of its separate anti-terror mission under "Operation Enduring Freedom" to 800 soldiers from the current 1,400, but Jung made clear this change would not affect the number of troops on the ground, which is well below the limit.

(Reporting by Sabine Siebold; Writing by Noah Barkin; Editing by Catherine Evans)