The German government yesterday flatly rejected deployment of troops in post-war Iraq as part any UN mission to rebuild the country.
"Our position is clear: there are absolutely no considerations on deploying German armed forces in Iraq after the war or plans for UN blue helmets in the time after Saddam Hussein," said Defense Minister Peter Struck in a German newspaper interview.
Struck said Germany had already reached the limit of troops it can send abroad with nearly 10,000 troops serving in Afghanistan and the Balkans. The German armed forces, or Bundeswehr, has about 285,000 soldiers.
Struck underlined that Berlin still wanted the UN to take over responsibility in Iraq as soon as possible.
The German government is firmly opposed to the Iraq war and ties with the US have been plunged into their worst chill since 1945 over the issue.
The minister also cast doubt over comments by German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder that there could be an increase in defense spending over the coming years.
"I'm arranging things based on agreed medium-term funding," said Struck told the Passauer Neue Presse when asked if extra money was coming for the armed forces.
German military spending is currently close to the lowest in the NATO as a percentage of GDP. Last year Berlin spent 23.6 billion euros (US$25.1 billion dollars) on defense and the government earlier this year vowed military spending would be frozen at 24.4 billion euros annually from 2003 to 2006.
NATO figures show Germany's 2002 defense spending is about 1.5 percent of GDP, compared with 2.5 percent of GDP spent by France and Britain and over 3 percent of GDP spent by the US.
RSS