Germany is altering its military strategy in Afghanistan and is no longer stressing an offensively oriented combat force, Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said Tuesday, DPA reported.
He spoke in Berlin during a series of separate news conferences by Chancellor Angela Merkel and three of her ministers on Germany's stance at a conference in London this Thursday on how to oppose the Taliban.
Merkel said earlier that Germany was stepping up aid and would seek parliamentary authorization for 850 more soldiers to join its current force of 4,500 in Afghanistan.
"This approach includes a genuine change of strategy," Guttenberg said. "It includes the credible prospect for a withdrawal."
He said all the additional 850 soldiers would be assigned "for the protection of the civilian population and the training of Afghan soldiers" and that this was part of a "restructuring of the mission away from an offensively oriented combat force."
In an indication of the different stakes ministers in the Merkel government have in the Afghan issue, the chancellor met with reporters separately from Guttenberg and Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle to set out the new policy.
Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere was also explaining his plans to sharply increase the number of German police trainers in Afghanistan. The government is to be represented at the London conference by Westerwelle.