The German government is considering increasing the upper limit of its troop contingent in Afghanistan to 7,000 from 4,500 at present, radio station Deutschlandfunk reported on Thursday. The increase would be put before parliament in December when the mandate for the mission comes up for renewal, the report said. All but one of the main parties in parties in parliament have supported the mission until now. The report, which did not cite the source of its information, said that Berlin wanted the increase to give Germany greater clout at an upcoming international conference on the increasingly bloody eight-year-old mission. The conference, which Chancellor Angela Merkel wants to use to press the Afghan government to assume more responsibilities, will take place in February or March, and not later this year as previously expected, the report added. The German troops, part of a NATO-led 65,000-strong force, are based currently in the relatively peaceful north of the country, which has become more violent in recent months. 