Germany will increase its deployment in Afghanistan by 500 troops and nearly double aid for reconstruction in the northern regions where it operates, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday.

The larger deployment and more than EUR400 million in reconstruction aid are designed to help the Afghan government move toward greater ownership of the country's security by 2014, Merkel told reporters in Berlin.

"We emphatically support President [Hamid] Karzai in his declaration that by 2014 we want to have a situation in which Afghanistan can guarantee its own security," Merkel said.

The additional German soldiers will help train Afghan security forces that Merkel wants to see playing a much broader role in securing the country by the end of 2011.

The number of German troops training Afghan soldiers and police officers will rise from 280 to over 1,000, Merkel said, adding some 350 German soldiers will be assigned to a "flexible reserve" to address shifting mission priorities, such as securing parliamentary elections.

In December, the Bundestag extended its forces' deployment through 2010 with a troop ceiling of 4,500.

Merkel also said that beginning this year Germany would nearly double aid for education, jobs training and other civilian programs from EUR220 million to EUR430 million. In addition, Germany will pledge EUR50 million over five years to an EUR350 million international fund for reintegrating insurgent fighters into Afghan society, Merkel said.

Germany's involvement in the war is unpopular in Germany, and opinion polls have consistently shown that Germans want their troops brought home.

"I have always said it's a dangerous deployment," Merkel said. "But I think we can only look at it with an absolutely realistic perspective, that only when we do more training, and work more effectively with the local population," will security improve.

Merkel announced her government's new strategy ahead of a conference on Afghanistan to be held in London Thursday.

-By Patrick McGroarty; Dow Jones Newswires; 00 49 30 2888 4128; patrick.mcgroarty@dowjones.com