Germany spent 894 million euros (about 1.1 billion U.S. dollars) on its overseas military deployments in 2006, exceeding the budget by 13 percent, the magazine Wirtschaftswoche reported on Saturday.

According to a report from the economics ministry to the budget commission, Germany's spending on the peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan rose to 500 million euros (641 million U.S. dollars) in 2006, exceeding the budget by 82 million euros (105 million U.S. dollars), the magazine said.

The increased military spending was a result of overspending on the rent of planes, their maintenance, and fuel costs, and also the result of the changed security situation in Afghanistan, it said.

As Germany has sent six more reconnaissance planes to Afghanistan, some military strategists predicted that the country's overseas military spending this year will exceed 1 billion euros (128 million U.S. dollars).

For years, the German Defense Ministry had complained that the insufficient defense budget had limited the country's military build-up.

Source: Xinhua