BERLIN, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Germany will pull its forces out of Congo as planned at the end of November despite tensions in the country following historic elections last month, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday.

"I say it clearly and unambiguously, this mission was and remains limited," Merkel told a security conference in Berlin. "It is our firm intention to pursue the mandate as planned until it has ended."

Germany has 780 troops in the region and is leading a European Union force sent to maintain peace in Congo following its first free elections in more than 40 years.

The four-month mission is due to end on Nov. 30 and Merkel is under domestic pressure to begin pulling German troops out then, but analysts have said an extension of the EU mandate may be necessary to prevent an outbreak of violence.

With just three weeks to go until the mandate ends, accusations of fraud from one camp in the election are raising tensions in a country which is hoping to draw a line under a 1998-2003 war that killed 4 million people.

Less than four months after agreeing to send its troops to Congo, the German government approved a 2,400-strong naval mission to patrol the coast of Lebanon.

Both missions were controversial in Germany, where resistance to military forays has been strong since the country's defeat in World War Two.

While acknowledging in her speech that there were limits to what the German military could do, Merkel also argued that the country could not shirk its responsibilities in a world faced with new threats like terrorism.

"Just as the threats know no borders, so too must the answers to these threats go beyond national boundaries," she said.

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