Germany calls for Afghanistan conference to set 'clear goals'

Berlin - The German defense minister has called for an international conference on Afghanistan to set what he called "clear goals" for the NATO-led alliance's deployment there. Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, who took over the ministry last month, told ARD television on Wednesday that such a conference would probably come to "new conclusions" about the way forward.

US President Barack Obama is currently weighing his country's strategy for the Afghan conflict, after tainted elections threw NATO's support of President Hamid Karzai into doubt.

Germany's deployment of up to 4,500 soldiers to the Hindu Kush has been unpopular at home, particularly since a German-ordered airstrike in September apparently killed dozens of civilians.

Germany provides the third-largest NATO contingent in Afghanistan after the US and Britain.

"If we should have to realign our objectives after such a conference, then we would also have to think about our own capabilities there," Guttenberg said.

The German parliament must debate the renewal of the army's Afghanistan mandate before mid-December. Any increase of German troop levels, as may be requested by the US when it has decided on its own strategy, would prove highly controversial.

However, Guttenberg said, "We must not be shy about using the word exit strategy."

In recent weeks Guttenberg has been unusually frank about Germany's involvement in Afghanistan, which previous defense ministers had always avoided calling a "war".

On Wednesday a German soldier was injured in a firefight with Afghan rebels, after an armored patrol was attacked with rockets. An Afghan soldier was also injured, although neither were thought to be in a life-threatening condition.