Germany would send another 120 combat troops to the Kunduz region in northern Afghanistan due to rising militant violence there, German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said on Friday.

The minister announced the move during a visit to forces in Kunduz, where the army conducted its largest post-World War II combat mission earlier this year, in an attempt to forestall increasingly frequent Taliban attacks.

"It isn't all sweetness and light here," Guttenberg was quoted as saying by the German news agency DPA during the visit, adding that the troops would be deployed from mid-January 2010.

The German parliament is expected to vote to approve the boosting of troops in the far-away country on Dec. 13. Germany has always been wary since World War II of military adventures abroad.

So far the German army's parliamentary mandate provides for a maximum of 4,500 troops to be deployed in Afghanistan, as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

Germany has already 450 combat troops stationed in Kunduz, in addition to around 1,000 soldiers attached to the so-called Reconstruction Teams, which provide humanitarian assistance to the Afghan population.

The conflict is unpopular at home in Germany, with majority public opinion against extending the mission in the war-torn country, according to opinion polls.

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