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BERLIN - Germany may offer to train Iraqi soldiers at bases outside Iraq, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday, following calls on European governments to do more to help stabilise the country.
"I do not rule out that Germany could also take part in training Iraqi soldiers outside Iraq," Merkel told a news conference after a meeting with Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak.
Merkel said while there were no concrete plans for such training activities as yet, officials from Germany's defence ministry were in contact with their Iraqi counterparts.
Earlier, Germany's Social Democrat (SPD) Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier rejected calls from Merkel's grouping of conservatives and from the US ambassador in Berlin that Germany do more to support Iraq.
"It (Germany's involvement) will remain at that which was decided by the previous government," Steinmeier was quoted as saying in an interview with Germany's Der Spiegel magazine.
Steinmeier said Germany had already participated in cutting Iraq's debt, training police officers and helping with redevelopment projects.
The US Ambassador to Germany, William Timken, had called on Germany in an interview with Deutschlandradio Kultur to become more involved in Iraq.
"We all know, not only the German but also the US government as well as Europe all have an interest in having a functioning democracy in Iraq," Timken said. "There are many means of achieving this. It needs effort on all sides."
- REUTERS
