BERLIN — Concerned about filling its ranks seven years after abolishing mandatory military service, Germany is looking into recruiting foreigners for service, according to reports released on Thursday, though there were conflicting accounts of the extent of those plans.

Gen. Eberhard Zorn, the chief of defense, said the military, or Bundeswehr, was considering enlisting foreign citizens for highly specialized roles, like doctors and information technology specialists.

“In times of skilled labor shortage, we have to look in all directions,” he said in an interview with the Funke Media group, which was widely reported by other German news organizations.

Hours after his comments appeared, the newsmagazine Der Spiegel published an article about a leaked government report indicating that plans to recruit citizens of other European Union countries were broader and more concrete than the narrow, tentative notion aired by General Zorn.