New Delhi/Kabul  - The host was absent when German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung held a press conference at the Kabul headquarters of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan recently.

ISAF's commander, General David McKiernan, apparently had something better to do - unusual considering Jung is defence minister of the third-biggest supplier of troops and the fourth biggest donor nation in Afghanistan.

Kunduz, Afghanistan - German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung said Wednesday the security situation in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz had stabilized after three German soldiers were killed there last year, but he got mixed reviews when meeting with tribal leaders there.

Although just before his visit to the German army's headquarters in Kunduz, three rockets hit outside the camp, inuring no one but damaging a gate, some of the tribal leaders said they had seen security improvements.

Mazar-e Sharif, Afghanistan - Possible negotiations with moderate elements of the Taliban are a decision for the Afghan government, German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung said Tuesday during a visit to the Central Asian country.

But President Hamid Karzai's government must also make certain that any Taliban partners in such talks would distance themselves from violence, Jung said while visiting German troops in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif.

Berlin - German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung began a three-day trip on Monday to Uzbekistan and Afghanistan, where he is to visit German military troops.

Germany has come under pressure to provide more troops and logistics to the NATO-led effort in Afghanistan, but at the weekend US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton stressed it was up to Berlin to decide on any reinforcements.

New York - German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung promised UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon assistance in the fight against piracy off the Somalia coast during a meeting Thursday in New York.

In dealing with the surge in piracy in the Gulf of Aden the international community needs a clear operation plan, said Jung.

"Where German interests are concerned, we will ensure that a condemnation of the pirates takes place," said the defence minister.

Berlin - German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung, interrupting his vacation, confirmed late Monday in Berlin the deaths of two German soldiers and five children in a suicide attack in Afghanistan.

Jung confirmed accounts which had previously come from Afghanistan in which two further German soldiers were wounded in the attack for which the Taliban had claimed responsibility.