By Sabine Siebold BERLIN, March 18 (Reuters) - Afghan leaders called on Sunday for more German help in training their security forces, warning that militants would strike in western capitals like Berlin unless they faced a stiffer challenge at home. Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta spoke to reporters in Berlin ahead of a meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday where the security situation in Afghanistan will be discussed. "I know how sensitive the public is here in Germany," Spanta said. "But people need to know that we can either fight terror where it starts, before it is in a position to strike, or we can wait until it is ready to act again here in Berlin, in London, Paris or Washington." He said the 40 police trainers Germany has committed to his country were not enough. The European Union agreed last month to send additional officers and experts on a mission it said would address the issue of police reform. "The Taliban itself is not the real danger, the problem is our own weakness," Karzai said, describing the police force as poorly equipped, underpaid and too small. Germany opposed the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq but has around 3,000 troops in Afghanistan as part of a NATO force stationed there since U.S.-led troops in 2001 toppled the Taliban, which had harboured al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Karzai's visit comes at a time of deepening scepticism in Germany about its military commitment in Afghanistan. Last week two separate Islamist militant groups threatened retaliation unless Germany pulled out its troops, most of which are deployed in the comparatively calm north of the country. Doubts have been aggravated by incidents like the killing of a German aid worker in Afghanistan earlier this month. German lawmakers recently approved sending six Tornado reconnaissance jets to Afghanistan, meeting a NATO request to help boost intelligence-gathering ahead of an expected spring offensive by insurgents. But in a sign of just how controversial the vote was, 69 members of the Social Democrats (SPD), who rule in coalition with Merkel's conservatives, broke ranks with the party leadership and voted against the mission. One German soldier, Juergen Rose, publicly refused to take part in the Tornado mission, saying he believed it violated international law. German military authorities expressed understanding for his position, gave him other duties and took no disciplinary action. A new poll published in weekly magazine Der Spiegel on Sunday showed 57 percent of Germans favour a rapid withdrawal of German troops.
