Germany has flatly rejected an American request to send more troops to Afghanistan and have them serve in the volatile south.

German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung told reporters in Berlin Friday that Germany has a clear mandate in Afghanistan.
(Franka Bruns/Associated Press)

"I have a clear mandate from the German parliament," Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung told reporters Friday. "It consists of 3,500 soldiers serving along the northern border, and only helping out in the south for a limited period of time, as needed."

His comments came after U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates sent an "unusually stern" letter to Jung more than a week ago, the Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported Friday.  

The 1½-page letter reportedly asked Germany to send more infantry, paratroopers and helicopters to southern Afghanistan. It also targeted other NATO members, asking them to work together to increase the the 40,000-member NATO force by 3,200 troops.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer was quick to condemn the letter on Friday. According to Reuters he said it was "not helpful."

He said it was unfair to say Germany was doing too little and he would prefer if discussion on boosting troop numbers in Afghanistan was not done in public.

"It obscures the success that we are having in Afghanistan in reconstruction and development," he told reporters in Paris, France. "We have to do more, no doubt about that, but I think it's not very helpful to do that publicly."

Restrictions on German, French Italian troops

German, French and Italian troops are under self-imposed restrictions that keep them out of combat operations. Germany's soldiers work around the capital Kabul and the relatively calm northern part of the country.

By comparison, Canadian, American, British and Dutch troops are deployed in the southern region, where much of the heavy fighting against the Taliban frequently occurs.

U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates is pushing for German troops to take on a larger role in Afghanistan.
(J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press)

Gates's letter complained of a heavy burden on American troops and warned of a possible split within NATO.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Defence Minister Peter MacKay and former defence minister Gordon O'Connor have repeatedly called on NATO to send more troops to clamp down on Afghanistan's Taliban insurgency, complaining a small number of countries are carrying the heaviest load.

"If friends need help, then we will respond with support for a limited time, as stipulated in our mandate," Jung said of his German troops, "but I think that our emphasis needs to remain in the north."

The exchange between Germany and the U.S. comes just days after Harper backed a report recommending Canada not remain in Afghanistan past 2009 unless NATO provides more soldiers.

Roughly 2,500 Canadian soldiers are serving in the southern Kandahar province. Seventy-eight soldiers and one diplomat from Canada have been killed since the mission started in 2002.

Also Friday, a group of former senior NATO officers have written a report calling for a major overhaul of the alliance, said the New York Times.

The 152-page report, called Toward a Grand Strategy for an Uncertain World, criticizes the organization for complicated rules surrounding its decision-making process, financing and its inability to maintain long-term missions.

With files from the Associated Press