German Chancellor Angela Merkel (L) attends a news conference next to Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul Nov. 3, 2007. Merkel made her first visit to Afghanistan on Saturday and is expected to visit some of the 3,000 German troops stationed in the country. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    KABUL, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday her government would extend support to Afghanistan's volatile southern region if need arises.

    "If there is need for the south, Germany would assist it," she told newsmen at a joint press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

    However, she did not say what kind of assistance her government would extend to the militancy-plagued southern provinces of Afghanistan.

    More than 3,000 German troops serving in the post-Taliban Afghanistan have been stationed in the country's relatively peaceful northern provinces.

    NATO-member states who have troops in Afghanistan to fight Taliban and associated insurgents have been asking Germany to contribute troops in the south, but Berlin is resisting the plea.

    Merkel, who paid her first but unannounced visit to Afghanistan on Saturday, held meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and exchanged views on matters of mutual interest including the war on terror and boosting economic cooperation.

    Karzai thanked Germany for its contribution in the reconstruction process of Afghanistan.

    Germany, which has contributed 850 million U.S. dollars to Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban regime nearly six years ago, would contribute some one billion U.S. dollars by the end of 2010.

    Merkel would also visit a German-built school in the Afghan capital of Kabul and German forces during her stay in Afghanistan.