Merkel wins backing for Afghan troop increase

BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel won overwhelming parliamentary backing on Friday for her plans to send up to 850 more German troops to Afghanistan, after a heated Bundestag debate was disrupted by an anti-war protest.

Despite opinion polls that show most Germans oppose the Afghan mission, parliament voted by a 429-111 margin to back Merkel's request to increase the German force to 5,350 troops.

The clear-cut vote followed months of nationwide debate about the increasingly assertive role German troops are playing in Afghanistan. They first went as peacekeepers in 2002 and have the third largest contingent in the NATO-led mission.

It was a rare piece of good news for Merkel, who has been plagued by one dispute after another in her four-month-old coalition, and may quiet debate on the merits of the deployment.

Merkel's centre-right government got 44 votes more than the 385 seats it holds and won support from some opposition deputies in the centre-left Social Democrats. Another 46 deputies in the 622-seat lower house abstained.

Just before the vote, deputies of the opposition Left party were ejected for mounting an anti-war protest. They stood up holding posters with names, ages and jobs of civilians they said were killed in a U.S. air strike in September which Germany ordered.

The Afghan government has said the strike near Kunduz, the most deadly operation involving German forces since World War Two, killed at least 69 Taliban fighters and 30 civilians.

Norbert Lammert, president of the parliament, first told the 76 Left party deputies to put down their posters. They refused and Lammert ordered them to leave.

Elke Hoff, a member of the Free Democrats who share power with Merkel's conservatives, criticised the demonstration.

"It's completely unacceptable for them to suggest German soldiers are just going around killing civilians," Hoff said.

Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg also criticised the Left party.

"One would wish some people would have been taught better manners," Guttenberg told reporters after the vote. He said the Left party had disobeyed house rules with the protest. "It was pretty amazing. Some evidently missed out in the nursery."

The troop increase was less than NATO had hoped for but reflects strong public opposition to the deployment in Germany.

Merkel has faced problems from her FDP coalition partners over a number of issues including tax cuts, health reform, Afghanistan and tensions over Greece's debt crisis.

A Politbarometer opinion poll on Friday showed support for Merkel's coalition dropping a point over the past month to 46 percent, three points behind the combined opposition parties.

(Editing by Andrew Roche)