Monday's ceremony will mark the end of Germany's six-month joint command with the Netherlands of the Kabul-based International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

Germany will retain one of the largest contingents in the force and Struck has called for German troops to be deployed outside Kabul to help stabilize the provinces and extend the authority of President Hamid Karzai's fragile government.

In a newspaper interview Sunday, Struck backed away from a proposal he made Friday for German troops to be deployed to Charikar, some 50 kilometresmiles) north of Kabul.

"(Charikar) is one of the stabilized provinces between Kabul and Baghram, where the Americans are. But we need to ask ourselves whether it is sensible to go to a place that is already stable," Struck told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

"The operations has got to make sense in military terms and above all in terms of civil reconstruction," he said.

Two other towns under consideration are Bagram and in particular Kunduz, located about 250 kilometers from Kabul on the border to Tadjikistan, according to press reports.

Struck said he intended to make a final proposal for the site of such an operation after his return to Berlin Monday evening.

The German deployment would be as part of a so-called provincial reconstruction team, a concept already applied in three regions of Afghanistan and supported by US forces.

With national elections scheduled in Afghanistan for next June, analysts say security has to be improved in the provinces before polls can be held.

Struck will begin his trip in Uzbekistan before continuing on Monday morning to Kabul, where he will also meet Karzai.

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