The German Defence Minister Thomas de Maiziere on Wednesday said the scheduled 2014 deadline for withdrawing troops from Afghanistan was still the target, DPA reported.
On Monday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the reconciliation with the insurgents had not yet made enough progress for foreign troops to leave.
"That is why I cannot yet say, we will be able to achieve this by 2013/14," she said during a visit to Mazar-e Sharif, the capital of Balkh province in northern Afghanistan, and the headquarters of the German contingent.
De Maiziere arrived in Afghanistan Wednesday for meetings with President Hamid Karzai and Defence Minister Adbul Rahim Wardak.
His trip comes ahead of a NATO summit in May, where the contributing nations to the international forces in Afghanistan are scheduled to map out the years following the 2014 withdrawal.
The German defence minister also visited Pakistan and Uzbekistan, both seen as critical for the stability of the international security effort in Afghanistan.
Most supplies to German troops pass through Uzbekistan, and the country is to provide a vital link in freighting material back out of Afghanistan after the withdrawal.
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