Berlin - Germany's cabinet agreed Wednesday to limit the country's future contribution to Operation Enduring Freedom, the US-led anti-terrorism campaign, to 800 personnel, the Defence Ministry said.

All the personnel are sailors and naval aviators posted to the Horn of Africa and the Mediterranean Sea.

The authorization, expected to be passed November 13 by the German parliament, will no longer extend to a contingent of German commandoes assigned to Afghanistan.

The elite KSK special forces, who are tasked with action against terrorists on Afghan soil, will instead be legitimized under parliamentary authorization earlier this month for 
4,500 German military personnel in Afghanistan.

According to the Defence Ministry, German assistance to Operation Enduring Freedom is likely to be extended until December 15, 2009, with the manning level reduced from 1,400 at present to 800 military personnel.

Even that number is far higher than the actual number deployed.

When Operation Enduring Freedom began in 2001, Germany offered nearly 4,000 personnel, mainly aboard warships blocking Islamist radicals from crossing the Gulf of Aden to Somalia.

The ministry said 90 Germans were currently deployed to the Horn of the Africa, while another 24 sailors were operating a German submarine in the Mediterranean as part of Operation Active Endeavour.

German naval operations to cut off arms smuggling along the Lebanese coast are subject to a different authorization. (dpa)