US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates steps up the pressure on Germany to expand its military mission in Afghanistan - je 01.02.2008 11

The German defence minister Franz-Josef Jung has dismissed a request from his US counterpart Robert Gates that Germany send combat troops to Southern Afghanistan. Jung says Germany and the United States had agreed on a clear division of their responsibilities in Afghanistan and that Germany would continue to focus its activities on the North. A spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel echoed the staement, saying the content of the German mandate for Afghanistan was not open to discussion. Gates had sent a letter to Germany and other NATO member states asking for more personnel and equipment to fight the insurgent Taliban. Germany currently has 2,500 hundred troops in Afghanistan, most of them engaged in providing security and assistance in the north of the country. +++SYN+++ +++SYN-MAZ+++