Kim Hjelmgaard

USA TODAY

HANNOVER, Germany — President Obama announced Monday that he was authorizing the deployment of up to 250 additional military personnel for the 5-year-old conflict in Syria as the U.S.-led coalition tries to "keep up momentum against the Islamic State."

Obama said in a well-received speech here predominantly about the future of Europe that the additional U.S. troops would provide training and assist local forces in the fight against the extremist group but not play an active combat role. The move raises the number of U.S. special forces in Syria to 300.

“They’re not going to be leading the fight on the ground, but they will be essential," the president said in Germany, where he attended a manufacturing technology trade show. The address capped a week-long foreign trip for the president, who also visited Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom.

Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said in a briefing for reporters ahead of Obama's speech that U.S. special forces in Syria were already making a difference, and the additional personnel would act as a critical "force multiplier."

"We want to accelerate that progress," Rhodes said.

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Obama said he would ask Great Britain, Germany, France and Italy for more equipment and troop contributions to aid the U.S. efforts against the Islamic State militants. “Europe and NATO can still do more,” he said. “We need to do everything in our power to stop them."

There was periodic applause from the audience over Obama's comments on European unity, which he said promotes peace and prosperity. “This is a defining moment, and what happens on this continent has consequences for people around the globe,” Obama said.

“If a unified, peaceful, liberal, pluralistic, free-market Europe begins to doubt itself, begins to question the progress that’s been made over the last several decades, then we can’t expect the progress that is just now taking hold in many places around the world will continue,” he said.

In late June, Britain will hold a referendum on whether to leave the 28-nation European Union, and the continent's migrant crisis has divided the region's leaders, policymakers and citizens.

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Obama also urged Europe’s leaders to pay attention to income inequality, a remark that drew huge applause from the crowd that included diplomats and business leaders but also many young professionals and some high school students.

“If we do not solve these problems, we start seeing those who would try to exploit these fears and frustrations and channel them in a destructive way,” Obama said. He said there was a danger it could create an “us-vs.-them” outlook that would foster bad feeling toward immigrants, Muslims and others.

"Equality includes, by the way, equal pay for women," the president said.

Rhodes said Obama's announcement on extra special forces indicated that the model the U.S. favors for Syria and other trouble spots in the Middle East from Afghanistan to Iraq — air power and equipment from the coalition, plus non-combat troops — was working.

He said that over the course of Obama's seven years in office, the president has deliberately changed the character of U.S. foreign policy so it addressed a broader set of issues and better able to focus on anti-terrorism operations.

"We've been able to significantly reduce the number of American troops in harm's way," Rhodes said. He said the core of that approach involved building coalitions and working with international partners while staying true to U.S. values.

As Obama toured the Hannover Messe trade fair with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday, he said he was "proud to showcase America's spirit of innovation." About 300 U.S. companies are exhibiting at the fair, the world's largest event of its kind.

Obama said being in Germany gave him "another chance for me to tell everyone to come here and buy in America," and as a result of fairs like this you "see more partnerships, more trade and more good jobs."

Part of his trip to Germany was to boost a proposed trade deal between the U.S. and EU. Obama wants to push through the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership before he leaves office in January. Many in Germany oppose the trade pact.

Before returning to Washington later Monday, Obama held high-level talks with Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President François Hollande and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. Among the topics was Libya and the ongoing disorder there after leader Moammar Gadhafi was ousted in 2011.