The agreement came despite a rocket attack on a German-run military camp in northern Afghanistan on Wednesday which injured three German soldiers and two Swiss.

There are a total of around 2,000 German troops in the 7,000-strong International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, making it the biggest contingent from any one country.

Some 16,500 US troops are battling insurgents in the south.

The motion was passed with 509 votes in favour, 48 against and three abstentions.

The German troops' current mandate runs out on October 13, four days after Afghanistan's first ever presidential election which both Al-Qaeda and remnants of the former Taliban regime have vowed to disrupt.

Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer made an impassioned plea to MPs to maintain the force's presence, saying the government saw no alternative if Afghanistan was to make a full transition to a democratic state.

"We are now entering a critical phase, with the elections," Fischer told the Bundestag. "Terrorists want to prevent democracy becoming legitimate.

"The German troops are there to help the democratic renewal."

Defence Minister Peter Struck said the attack on the Germans hours before the vote only served to illustrate that the troops must stay in place because the security situation in Afghanistan was unstable.

"Security cannot be 100 percent guaranteed and the soldiers know that," Struck said.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is due to visit Afghanistan on October 11 and a government source said that he could cancel his trip if the violence escalates.

The troops attacked were part of a Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Kunduz, one of two run by German forces in northern Afghanistan.

Security measures were being reinforced around the camp, where 270 soldiers and 30 civilians are based. The other German-run PRT in Faizabad comprises 110 soldiers. The bulk of the troops are stationed in Kabul.

Schroeder's Social Democrats, the Greens who make up the government coalition and the main opposition party, the Christian Democratic Union all supported extending the mandate, while the opposition Free Democratic Party and Party of Democratic Socialism were against.

The German-run Provincial Reconstruction Team operating in Faizabad has attracted controversy over its failure to rescue foreign aid workers who came under attack from an angry mob earlier this month.

The aid workers eventually had to be rescued by unarmed staff from the United Nations and a private security firm.

The duties of the German team hit in the rocket attack are to foster reconstruction work and boost the influence of the central Kabul government in the provinces, many of which are controlled by local warlords.

ISAF, which is supported by 30 countries, was set up by the United Nations in December 2001 to provide security after the overthrow of the Taliban regime by US-led forces.

Germany opposed the US-led war on Iraq and has steadfastly refused to commit troops there since, but has 3,250 personnel serving in the KFOR peacekeeping force in Kosovo and 1,080 in the SFOR operation in Bosnia-Hercegovina as well as a total of 2,130 in Afghanistan, according to army figures.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, meanwhile, will visit Berlin this weekend to receive the "Quadriga" prize awarded to personalities who have displayed vision, courage and responsibility in their work, organisers said on Thursday.

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