Germany in Iraq

Roth traveled to northern Iraq this week to meet with top politicians and human rights activists and to get a feel for the security situation in the war-torn region. She met with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who asked that Germany be more involved in Iraq's north, Roth told German media outlets on Friday.

"Germany has to take a new role," she told German public broadcaster ARD on Friday. "I expect the German government to be diplomatically, economically and politically present in Kurdistan."

Roth said Germany should be more strongly engaged in the Kurdish region and pointed out that other European Union countries, including Italy, Great Britain, France and the Czech Republic, were taking part in rebuilding efforts and cultural projects in northern Iraq.

Though the autonomous northern part of the country is relatively calm compared to the rest of Iraq, where suicide bombings are a regular occurrence, Roth's five-day trip to the region was the first visit from a German parliamentary delegation to the country since the US-led invasion began in 2003.

German military not in Iraq

Under then Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, Germany refused to take part in the US-led war in Iraq and currently does not have a military presence in the country. Germany has participated in helping train Iraqi military, but the program is conducted in Germany and Gulf countries.

The opposition Green party -- which has pacifist roots and has traditionally spoken out against Germany becoming involved in foreign military matters -- was among the most vocal opponents to Germany's involvement in the US military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Northern Iraq critical to country's stability

Greens security expert Winfried Nachtwei said he viewed the situation in northern Iraq to be relatively safe.

"It seems to me that the situation is much, much more stable than in the north of Afghanistan," he said.

Germany has some 3,000 soldiers stationed in Afghanistan, nearly all of whom are in the north, as part of international security forces in the country. While members of the Greens are divided on whether to extend Bundeswehr mandates in Afghanistan, Nachtwei said it was right for Germany not to become involved in the Iraq war.

The German Foreign Ministry has issued a general warning for all German nationals to leave Iraq, including those in the country's north. It's a warning Roth said she doesn't understand.

"For me it is totally incomprehensible why there is neither diplomatic representation nor an attempt to support the capabilities of the people here through cultural exchange, such as setting up German schools," she said, adding that many of politicians she met had lived in Germany in the past and requested German involvement in Afghanistan.

Returning refugees to Iraq "shameless"

Germany is particularly interested in northern Iraq because many German asylum-seekers come from the area. Roth pointed out that currently, people from the Kurdish region must travel to Baghdad or the Turkish capital of Ankara to get a visa to travel to Germany.

Many Iraqi asylum seekers in Germany have had a difficult time meeting requirements to become legal residents of Germany and face deportation. Roth warned against programs that send Iraqi refugees back to the war-torn country, calling them "rather shameless."

"That is not a constructive to the rebuilding efforts; it's absolutely destructive," she said in an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio.

Human Rights Watch recently criticized a German plan to strip Iraqi refugees in Germany of their status as asylum seekers.

Besides meeting Talabani, Roth also met with Massud Barsani, who is the head of the Kurdish area, as well as human rights activists and UN representatives.