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Merkel to meet Afghan president in Berlin

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Berlin, April 29, IRNA -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel is to meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Berlin on May 10, deputy government spokesman Thomas Steg told the press here Wednesday.

Talks will focus on pressing ahead with the reconstruction and democratization process in Afghanistan and 'not slowing it down', the German official said.

He added the final objective was to ensure Afghans could ultimately take care of their political and security affairs.

Steg ruled out a German role in fighting narcotics in Afghanistan, saying there are no such plans.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier who is currently on a two-day visit to Afghanistan amid very tight security precautions, held talks with Karzai in Kabul earlier in the day.

Steinmeier's visit was marred by a suicide attack on a German military convoy in northern Afghanistan, injuring five German soldiers, one of them seriously.

On April 6, a German army camp in northern Afghanistan came under a missile attack only moments after a visit by Merkel.

Only one-third of Germans back the military operation in Afghanistan, according to a survey released recently by the ARD broadcasting network.

Some 32 percent of those questioned say German troops should remain in Afghanistan, down 10 percent from the same corresponding time in February 2008.

Around 64 percent believe that German soldiers, deployed in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), should be pulled out of the war-stricken country as soon as possible.

This is the lowest rate of approval for the German military mission in Afghanistan, conducted by the ARD television station.

Germany has been the scene of nationwide mass protests against the war in Afghanistan over the past years.

More than 3,500 German troops are presently deployed in northern Afghanistan and Kabul.

Berlin has faced intense pressure by the US, Britain and Canada to dispatch more soldiers to Afghanistan, especially to the southern part of the country where NATO-led forces have been confronted with a fierce Taliban and al-Qaeda insurgency.

NATO has presently based around 55,000 troops in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

ISAF is by far NATO's largest mission, and is viewed as crucial to the security and long-term credibility of the western military pact.

The disputed ISAF mission was mandated by the United Nations in December 2001, in the wake of the overthrow of the Taliban.