German Chancellor Angela Merkel voiced scepticism on Monday about plans by NATO to establish firm relations with countries bordering Russia. ( dpa )
States that are involved in regional conflicts should not become members of the alliance, the chancellor said in apparent reference to Ukraine and Georgia.
Both countries are participating in NATO's so-called Intensified Dialogue programme and are aspiring to become full members one day.
The trans-Atlantic alliance is a pillar of Germany's foreign and security policy, but it has to move away from purely military thinking, Merkel told a meeting of German armed forces commanders in Berlin.
Outgoing Russian President Vladimir Putin has criticized NATO's expansion plans, accusing the alliance of trying to replace the United Nations.
Georgia has unresolved disputes with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, while Ukraine has been locked in a clinch with Moscow over payments for fuel supplies.
Merkel also affirmed that Germany was opposed to extending its military role in Afghanistan to the fiercely contested south, a move requested by the United States.
She said her country's NATO-led troops were needed in the relatively peaceful north, where they were engaged mainly in civilian reconstruction projects.
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told the gathering that Afghanistan should not be divided into spheres of responsibility for peacekeeping, combat operations and reconstruction.
The country would be won or lost in its entirety, he said.
Those building schools in the north are just as much a target of the Taliban as those fighting the country's former fundamentalist rulers in the south, he said.
Germany has around 3,500 troops in Afghanistan as well as a squad of military surveillance aircraft.