Berlin  - An interim report from a NATO investigation differs with Germany over the casualties in an airstrike last week on two hijacked tanker trucks in Afghanistan, a German television report said Monday.

The German Defence Ministry has estimated that the air-support operation summoned by a German officer left 56 Taliban rebels dead and 12 persons wounded. ZDF television said NATO estimated between 70 and 78 persons were killed.

The public television channel said NATO based that toll on information from the governor of Kunduz province. NATO was also reporting it was "very highly likely" that civilians were killed and wounded.

ZDF said it had obtained extracts from the NATO inquiry report and those statements were in the text. The airstrike has brought the Afghan conflict into political debate as Germany prepares for a general election on September 27.

The German Defence Ministry declined substantive comment. Spokesman Thomas Raabe told the German Press Agency dpa the NATO report was an interim one and merely the basis for a formal inquiry.

Separately, German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung told ZDF in an interview for broadcast Monday evening that the casualties "might" include civilians.

"We have an interest in this being investigated," he said. "If this shows there were civilian casualties, then obviously that would prompt our sympathy and condolences."

Previously he had said the information at his disposal showed they were "exclusively terrorist Taliban members."  dpa