(Bloomberg) - Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday she will send 500 additional German troops to Afghanistan, bowing to U.S. pressure to widen a mission that most Germans reject.

The extra troops will protect the civilian population and train Afghan forces to help President Hamid Karzai’s government assume more responsibility for security, Merkel said. Another 350 soldiers will be put on standby for Afghanistan, she said.
The chancellor outlined the policy shift two days before an international conference on Afghanistan in London. Merkel, who won’t attend the conference and plans to send Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle in her place, is due to meet Karzai in Berlin later today when he stops off on his way to Britain.
Merkel also proposed increasing German aid to Afghanistan through 2013 to 430 million Euros ($606 million) from a currently planned 220 million Euros and to boost the number of German police officers training Afghan police to 200 from 123.
“Our aim is an Afghanistan that stops the Taliban and terrorists from posing a threat to Afghans as well as to ourselves,” she said