Chancellor Angela Merkel assured Afghan President Hamid Karzai during talks in Berlin on Sunday that Germany will boost its efforts to provide training to police and security forces in Afghanistan.  

At a joint press conference after the meeting, Merkel said Germany took the issue "very seriously" and had agreed to accelerate the pace of training for both soldiers and police.

Germany has already pledged to increase the number of its troops in Afghanistan by 600, to 4,400, in the months leading up to the country's presidential election in August, in which Karzai hopes to win another term in office.

Karzai thanked Germany for its efforts to date in training Afghan security forces, although Merkel said only 10 percent of the required personnel had been trained so far. "We have a long way to go," she said.