Merkel visits Afghanistan

Merkel was to visit troops stationed in Masar-i-Sharif in the north of the country, a spokesman said in Berlin.

As her visit was announced, the Taliban vowed revenge against "sick-minded American savages" for the killing of 16 villagers including women and children in their homes in the province of Kandahar on Sunday.

The massacre in the Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan added to roiling anti-Western sentiment in the war-ravaged country over the burning of the Koran at a US base last month.

Germany, and several other NATO member states pulled their advisors from Afghan institutions after two members of the international force in Afghanistan were shot dead in violence over the Koran incident, which ignited days of violent ant-US protests during which 40 people were killed.

Germany is the third biggest supplier of troops to the 130,000-strong NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) after the United States and Britain.

It had 4,900 soldiers in Afghanistan as of 1 February, but a further 500 are to be withdrawn by 2013 before a complete pullout planned by 2014.

Shortly after her arrival, Merkel paid homage to the more than 50 German soldiers killed in Afghanistan since NATO-led troops first went into the country in 2001, but had to cancel a planned visit to Kunduz due to heavy snowfall.

Sunday's killing spree came as the United States and Afghanistan pursue difficult talks on securing a strategic pact to govern their partnership once foreign combat troops leave Afghanistan in 2014.