Airstrike uproar

In her speech, Merkel said that every death or injury of an innocent person in the country was "one too many," adding that "any innocent person killed or hurt, including through German actions, I deeply regret."

But Merkel told lawmakers that her government would not accept "premature judgments" and promised a transparent enquiry into the airstrike.

"I will ensure that we will not put a gloss on anything," she said.

She also sought to lay out why parliament should continue to support her government's Afghanistan policies and the airstrike ordered by the German military. Last week, her British counterpart Gordon Brown was forced to do the same.

Merkel's government has repeatedly backed the airstrike ordered by a German commander, but has come under immense pressure, both from within Germany and from key international allies, ahead of parliamentary elections at the end of September.

German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung has defended the airstrike, which, according to NATO sources, killed around 125 people. Jung said it had been aimed at two hijacked fuel tankers which the Taliban could have driven toward Kunduz city six kilometers away to attack a large German base.

Jung told the German Bild am Sonntag newspaper that the Bundeswehr had clear indications of a pending attack. "Therefore I regard the decision of the German commander's on location as correct," he said.

Concern over looming election

In her address on Tuesday, the chancellor explained why she believes German soldiers need to be in Afghanistan. She was due to take questions from members of parliament following the speech.

Speaking at a town hall-style meeting on national broadcaster ARD, Merkel earlier said it needed to be made clear that international troops "shouldn't be there forever." She added that Afghanistan needs to learn how to take their own security and responsibility for rebuilding the country into their own hands.

"We need to get going. We need to establish with the Afghans how much support we want to give each year," said Merkel. "We need to show that we expect to move forward a massive step in the next five years."

However, Merkel left it open as to whether or not German troops would be pulled out Afghanistan at the end of those five years, saying that it would depend on a number of factors, including the state of the Afghan police forces.

The chancellor didn't spend much time on the airstrike, only saying that the incident had to be investigated.

"Our soldiers do excellent work under very difficult conditions there," she added.

mrm/dpa/AFP/Reuters
Editor: Jennifer Abramsohn