Parliament voted decisively Friday to extend the deployment of German troops in Afghanistan for another year despite growing domestic opposition and a surge of violence from the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
The decision - 453 deputies voted for the extension, 79 against and 48 abstained in the lower house - was welcomed by NATO. The alliance has repeatedly appealed to its 26 member states to provide more troops and equipment to fight the insurgents.
"The vote is good news," said James Appathurai, the NATO spokesman. "Germany has built a lot and helped a lot in Afghanistan."
NATO's secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, has asked Berlin several times to consider redeploying some of its 3,000 troops from the relatively quiet north to operations in the south where fighting has been intensifying.
Under the terms of the extension that was approved, the troops will remain in northern region of Kunduz. The mandate also continued the deployment of six Tornado reconnaissance jets that provide intelligence to NATO commanders in the south.
