Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday defended the work of German troops in Afghanistan and indicated she was opposed to sending the country's soldiers to the violence-hit south.
"We want to make the mission in Afghanistan a success," Merkel said in a speech to the Bundestag lower house of parliament on the first anniversary of her swearing-in as chancellor.
"The German military is doing an important and dangerous job," Merkel said.
"But I see no military commitment beyond this mandate."
The chancellor ruled out extending the mandate of German troops for the time being to allow them to be deployed in the south, where NATO-led forces are facing the most severe attacks from the Taliban since the extremists were ousted in 2001.
The German force of about 2,750 soldiers are based in the relatively peaceful north of Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
Merkel defended their role and said re-deploying them now could undo what they had achieved.
"The German army is carrying out a difficult and important role in the north and we do not want to put the success of this mission in jeopardy.
"I don't see anyone who seriously wants to endanger the relative security that we have achieved in the north."
"The issue of Afghanistan is too important for us to let it be reduced to a military north-south debate," she said.
Merkel said 40 percent of the Afghan population lived in the regions where German troops are stationed and she praised their work in training 17,000 Afghan policemen.
A NATO summit in Riga next week is expected to be dominated by the situation in Afghanistan.
Merkel called for a political solution for Afghanistan, saying the battle for the "hearts and minds" of Afghans must go hand-in-hand with the military operation against the insurgents.
"We need an approach which clearly links security to reconstruction.
"There cannot be a purely military solution, but without a secure military environment the reconstruction of the country cannot take place."
Recent reports in Germany say Washington has put pressure on Berlin to deploy combat troops in the violence-hit south.
The German government denied reports on Monday that it was set to contribute soldiers for so-called Provincial Reconstruction Teams to work in the south.