Afghanistan pullout

"We went to and have stayed in Afghanistan to prevent terrorist attacks, including against ourselves," Steinmeier told Super Illu magazine. "But we don't want to stay forever. The aim, over the course of the next parliamentary period, is to lay the foundations for a withdrawal."

The foreign minister refused, however, to give a definite deadline for when the soldiers are to be out. "It wouldn't be prudent to inform terrorist forces of the precise year in which the last foreign soldier will have left Afghanistan," he said.

The announcement is a move that could win Steinmeier votes in the upcoming September 27 elections when he'll be running as the Social Democratic candidate against incumbent German Chancellor Angela Merkel of the conservative Christian Democrats.

The German foreign minister said the timeline of the withdrawal would depend on the capabilities of the local Afghan forces. Talks are needed "to determine how long we and other international soldiers will have to stay and how many more Afghan soldiers and policemen have to be trained to take full charge of security."

Afghanistan is back on the election agenda

German Chancellor Angela Merkel touched upon an early German withdrawal from Afghanistan herself on Saturday.

"In association with our partners, we want to hammer out a strategy allowing for the transfer of responsibility to Afghanistan over five years," Merkel said in an interview published in Saturday's edition of the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

On Sunday night, Merkel and Steinmeier are to face each other in a televised debate which may help to determine the outcome of the September 27 election.

Polls show that around 60 percent of voters want an end to Germany's participation in the NATO mission. All of Germany's major parties, other than the far-left Left party, have so far backed the deployment of German troops in northern Afghanistan.

Karzai commission confirms 30 civilian deaths

A controversial airstrike called by German troops in Afghanistan earlier this month that killed scores of people has brought the issue back into the election campaign.

On Sunday, a commission set up by Afghan President Hamid Karzai said that a total of 30 civilians and 69 Taliban were killed in the airstrike. But Mohamadulla Batai of the commission added that the responsibility for the tragedy remained with the Taliban and defended the German officer who ordered the airstrike.

"Not only the German troops would have ordered the airstrikes," Batai said. "All of the international and national forces would have acted likewise. If these fuel trucks had remained in the hands of enemies, they would have used them for terrorist purposes."

Germany, Britain and France last week called for an international conference on Afghanistan to be held by the end of the year to set new goals for the NATO mission in the country.

ai/AFP/Reuters
Editor: Rick Demarest