Germany's parliament Thursday approved a 13-month extension to the country's participation in naval patrols off the Horn of Africa, part of a U.S.-led anti-terrorism operation.

Lawmakers voted 428-130 to authorize the German military to continue participating until December 2009 in Operation Enduring Freedom, which was launched in response to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorism attacks in the U.S. There were eight abstentions.

Germany has around 100 service personnel involved in the naval patrols. The mandate approved Thursday allows for a maximum 800 to participate - down from 1,400 so far.

Germany will take over the mission's leadership for three months in January.

But the new mandate no longer authorizes the deployment of up to 100 soldiers from an elite military unit to serve in Afghanistan.

Details of the unit's operations are kept secret, but officials have said it has not been used in Afghanistan since Chancellor Angela Merkel's government took office three years ago.

They have portrayed the change to the mandate as reflecting a shift in priorities in Afghanistan from the U.S.-led anti-terror operation toward the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force - in which Germany has 3,600 troops.

German military deployments abroad require parliamentary approval, typically renewed on an annual basis.

Separately, Germany plans to contribute a frigate to a planned European Union anti-piracy mission off the Horn of Africa. Parliament is expected to vote on that in early December.

The Pentagon will give President-elect Barack Obama's transition team a rundown of "key decision points" it will face in his first 90 days as commander in chief, a senior official said Thursday.

Eric Edelman, the policy chief for Defense Secretary Robert Gates, told a group of reporters that briefings for Obama's defense transition team will be intentionally "non-prescriptive," avoiding trying to sell the Defense Department's current policies and instead laying out a timeline to prepare the incoming team.

"We've tried to sketch out a timeline for the department as a whole" and for individual agencies within the department, "by issue, of the key decision points that the new administration is going to face in the first 90 days of its term," Edelman said.

"We've tried to be non-prescriptive, which is to say, look, here's the timeline, here's the decision points you will face, here are the choices that you will face," without recommending policy choices, he said.

Edelman declined to list the decision points, saying they had not yet been briefed to the Obama transition team. But in general, he said, they include such things as NATO defense ministers meetings and defense budget deadlines. He singled out the budget as one of the major issues facing the new administration, given the current global financial crisis and its likely impact not only on Pentagon funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but also for war-related resources at the State Department.

This is the first wartime presidential transition in 40 years.

Edelman, who said he is retiring from government in January, said he has been involved in every presidential transition since 1981. He asserted that the Gates group is "light years ahead" of where the outgoing Pentagon team was when President George H.W. Bush handed off to President Bill Clinton in 1993.

It remains unclear whether Obama will ask Gates to stay on as Pentagon chief; Edelman offered no hints but said "a very high percentage" of Pentagon officials canvassed by Gates in recent months have said they are willing to remain in their posts after Inauguration Day if the new administration asks them.

Asked about decisions the Obama administration will face on striking a balance between resources for Iraq and Afghanistan, Edelman said he expects that U.S. commanders in Iraq will take a conservative approach to reducing U.S. force levels there, in order not to jeopardize recent security gains - even as commanders in Afghanistan appeal for more troops and other war-fighting resources now tied up in Iraq.

"There'll be a tension, for sure," he said.

A former Defense Department employee was sentenced to probation for failing to report income she earned when her business did work with the department.

Constance Walton, 55, of Mitchellville, Md., was also ordered to pay a $10,000 fine on Friday by U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan.

Walton worked at the Defense Logistics Agency the same time as she owned a business that received more than $100,000 in income from Army contractors. Prosecutors said she failed to report the income to the Department of Defense.

Walton pleaded guilty in July to one count of making a false statement. She received the money from 2000 to 2006.