Kunduz, Afghanistan  - A German military base in Afghanistan came under rocket fire shortly after a visit by German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday.

Two missiles were fired at the facility in the northern city of Kunduz, just 20 minutes after the chancellor left, a government spokesman said in Berlin.

The missiles landed outside the perimeter fence and caused no casualties or damage.

A spokesman for the radical Taliban movement said the missiles were directed at the plane carrying Merkel. There was "noise and chaos" at the airstrip, spokesman Sabiullah Mujahid told the German Press Agency dpa.

The airstrip is adjacent to the base, where 700 of the 3,800 German troops serving in Afghanistan are stationed.

The incident occurred at the start of a two-day visit, which was kept secret until Merkel's arrival for security reasons. It followed on the heels of NATO setting a new strategy for Afghanistan.

At its weekend summit in Germany and France, the alliance decided to put a greater emphasis on reconstruction, alongside its fight against the Taliban.

From Kunduz, Merkel flew to the German headquarters in Mazar-e Sharif, where she told soldiers that Germany would be forced to maintain a strong military presence in northern Afghanistan for some time to come.

She said the Afghans were not in a position to maintain their own security in the north.

Earlier, she said the country's security must see improvements, a large part of which would come in the form of building up the Afghan army and police forces forces.

Germany also plans to increase the number of its soldiers deployed in Afghanistan by 600 to 4,400 in the months leading up to presidential elections in August.

US President Barack Obama also has announced plans to shift the US emphasis from Iraq to Afghanistan and plans to raise US troops levels in the Central Asian country by 21,000 this year from the current 38,000.

Merkel, who was making her second visit to Afghanistan after a 2007 trip, met Monday with soldiers as well as representatives from non-governmental organizations. Topics included efforts to improve living conditions.

Unlike her 2007 trip, Merkel does not plan to visit Kabul and President Hamid Karzai.

Merkel telephoned Karzai on Sunday to discuss a controversial new family law for the country's Shiite minority that critics say legalizes "rape" within marriage and effectively bars women from leaving their homes without permission from their husbands.

Three attacks on German soldiers occurred near the Kunduz base shortly before Merkel's visit. A patrol was hit Sunday by a roadside bomb in Kunduz. But, like the other two attacks on the weekend, no one was injured.

Over the past four weeks, six rocket attacks have been carried out on the Kunduz base. There have also been two roadside bombings targeted at German patrols. A year ago, three German troops were killed in the city. (dpa)