Even disregarding doubts about whether a peacekeeping force would be effective, and whether the German army has the capacity to mount another mission abroad, the idea that soldiers from the nation that killed 6 million Jews could confront Israeli troops is too much to stomach for many here.

"German soldiers in the region, that's very difficult given our history. I don't think it would be right, unless the warring parties, above all Israel, agreed to it," said Kerstin Müller, foreign policy spokeswoman for the opposition Greens Party told Deutsche Welle.

The former Israeli ambassador to Germany, Avi Primor, said it was still "too soon for the Germans" to fight in missions on Israel's borders.

Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung has been backtracking furiously ever since he said on Monday that Germany "could not refuse a peace mission" if it was asked to take part and if the necessary conditions were met. He refused to repeat the statement hours later despite persistent questioning in an evening television interview, merely insisting that German participation wasn't an issue at present.

Senior members of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), who share power with Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives, have also been voicing doubts. Walter Kolbow, deputy parliamentary group chairman for the SPD, warned there would have to be broad cross-party support for such a mission. "And that includes the German public as well -- they would need to accept it first."

Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who visited the region over the weekend, said talks about Germany's involvement were being treated with great sensitivity. "I think this is appropriate given the difficult shared history between Germany and Israel," he told public television station ZDF on Sunday.

Foreign missions sensitive

Germany's 20th century history of military aggression and destruction has made the country extremely cautious about sending its army abroad, and past missions have been surrounded by intense debate .

Germany gradually started taking a stronger role on the world stage during the 1990s after reunification. In the first combat operations involving German troops since 1945, Germany took part in NATO's bombardment of Serbia during the 1999 Kosovo war and in 2001 agreed to dispatch up to 3,900 troops to Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa as part of the US-led anti-terrorism campaign "Enduring Freedom."

Former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, determined to give Germany a more forceful voice in the world, even staked his job on the Afghanistan mission, calling a parliamentary vote of confidence to quell a rebellion in his party and force it to back him.

The prospect of sending troops on what could be an even tougher task in the Middle East that may bring them into conflict with Israeli forces is likely to be so fraught with controversy that Merkel's government is keen to find other ways of helping.

Besides, Germany now has 7,500 troops stationed abroad -- mostly in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Africa -- and parliamentarians from all parties have been stressing that the military has enough on its plate.

"Germany's role is likely to be limited to being part of international efforts on a political level, but it may make its own contribution in the smaller issue of negotiating prisoner releases," said Margret Johannsen, Middle East analyst at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg (IFSH).

"Germany has negotiated prisoner exchanges before and should use the structure, the personnel and the institutional links it has for such negotiations."

Experience in mediating

In 2004, the BND foreign intelligence service and Germany's secret service coordinator Ernst Uhrlau -- now head of the BND -- arranged the release of 435 Arab prisoners by Israel in exchange for a kidnapped Israeli businessman and the remains of several Israeli soldiers.

The deal came after years of negotiation involving Israel, Hezbollah, Germany and Iran. At times Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah personally took part in the talks. He has recently called for Germany to help mediate another swap -- Arab prisoners for the two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah forces earlier this month in a raid that prompted Israel's attack on Lebanon and precipitated the current crisis.

Supporting Israel has been firm foreign policy doctrine for Germany since World War Two, but it has also sought to build good relations with the Palestinians. As a result, the country has credibility as an honest broker in the region where the United States and Britain are seen as too pro-Israeli, and the French as too pro-Arab, say analysts.

"We have close relations with Israel because of our historical responsibility, and we have established a relationship of trust with the Palestinians," said Frank Umbach, analyst at the German Council on Foreign Relations. "Germany could build on that if both sides wish it to, but it needs to tread very carefully."

Prisoner swap talks now were likely to be more difficult than last time because of the hostilities and the nuclear dispute between the West and Iran, which together with Syria supports and steers Hezbollah, said Umbach.

"During the nuclear talks with European nations in 2003 Iran delayed and prevaricated to win time to pursue its nuclear program," said Umbach. "The danger is that we may be used by the Syrians and the Iranians, which may thwart any prisoner exchange and lose us credibility with the Israelis."

Bernd Schmidbauer, a former German spymaster who arranged a prisoner swap in 1996, said this week he was ready to help again. "I still have contacts -- that's well known -- very personal contacts on all sides," Schmidbauer, who was secret service coordinator to former Chancellor Helmut Kohl, told Deutschlandfunk radio on Monday.

Germany's Foreign Ministry has declined to comment on whether it will get involved in prisoner exchange talks and this week denied it had a broader mediating role even though Steinmeier visited the region last weekend and dispatched senior officials to Beirut, Damascus and the United Nations in New York.