German Chancellor Angela Merkel telephoned President Michel Suleiman, lauding his role in preserving stability in Lebanon and hoping that a new cabinet would be formed soon, Baabda palace said Friday.

A presidential statement said that Merkel also expressed support to Lebanon's call for a U.N.-led international conference to discuss the issue of Syrian refugees.

Germany on Thursday offered to keep 600-800 troops in Afghanistan for two years from 2015, after the end of NATO combat operations there, to help train and advise the national army in its battle against the Taliban.

The offer comes with several conditions, including a formal request from the Afghan government because "we want to be welcome" and a U.N. Security Council resolution, said Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere.

Qatar's prime minister on Tuesday called on the international community to support efforts to end the Syrian conflict after talks with the German chancellor who warned the whole region faced destabilization.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani stressed the need for a solution "as quickly as possible", saying the Syrian people had sacrificed a lot during more than two years of violence.

The German parliament will vote Thursday on a bailout plan for debt-mired Cyprus, a deputy from the ruling conservatives said, with the government confident of a clear majority.

Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble will open the session in the Bundestag lower house with a speech, followed by two separate votes on Cyprus, parliamentary sources said Tuesday.

A specially equipped German military aircraft will head to Jordan on Monday to pick up 36 Syrians who were seriously wounded in the conflict in their country and fly them to Germany for treatment, the foreign ministry said.

The wounded Syrians will receive care at four army hospitals including facilities in Berlin and Hamburg, a ministry spokesman said.

Germany's finance minister expects his country's parliament to widely approve the bailout plan for indebted Cyprus, he told a newspaper on Monday.

"I am reckoning on a broad majority in the Bundestag (lower house of parliament), also on broad support by the opposition," Wolfgang Schaeuble told the Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung according to a pre-released excerpt.

Germany is in talks with Israel to buy weaponized drones for its military that are seen as more technologically advanced than U.S. ones, the weekly Der Spiegel reported.

The news magazine's Monday edition said the German defense ministry had already held two meetings with Israeli military officials, in November 2012 and February 2013, on the proposed purchase.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel met Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for a joint cabinet session Thursday as the European export power and the Asian population giant seek to boost economic ties.

While Germany, amid the eurozone crisis, wants to broaden trade and investment links with large emerging markets, India is seeking German technology and expertise in areas such as renewable energies and education.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle on Wednesday called on North Korea to stop its "war of rhetoric" and said the isolated communist state was "playing with fire".

South Korean and U.S. forces raised their alert status to "vital threat" Wednesday ahead of an expected North Korean missile test, with tensions wound tight during a five-day buildup to a key anniversary.

A television miniseries brought World War II horrors back to German living rooms this month and provoked a furious reaction from Poland, which accused it of playing down Nazi guilt.

The 14-million-euro ($18-million) production "Our Mothers, Our Fathers", shown in three parts on public broadcaster ZDF, tells the story of five Germans in a story spanning the Nazis' declaration of war on the Soviet Union in 1941 to their ultimate defeat in 1945.