Chancellor Angela Merkel has vowed to stick to her open-door refugee policy, defying criticism at home and abroad which has intensified due to growing fears about a potential security risk after the Islamist attacks in Paris.

Conservative Mrs Merkel faces splits in her right-left coalition and pressure from EU states, including France, over her insistence Germany can cope with up to one million migrants this year and that Europe must accept quotas to take them in.

In a 40-minute speech to the Bundestag lower house of parliament, Mrs Merkel said the security threat level in Germany was high but insisted people must carry on with normal life.

"The strongest response to terrorists is to carry on living our lives and our values as we have until now -- self-confident and free, considerate and engaged," she said to loud applause.

"We Europeans will show our free life is stronger than any terror."

Just hours before heading to Paris to meet French President Francois Hollande, she said Germany would show solidarity with France after the attacks that killed at least 130 people.

Germany, which has since the Second World War been reluctant to join military missions abroad, said earlier it is sending 650 soldiers to the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali and increasing the number of troops training Kurdish Peshmerga forces in Iraq.

But in addition, Mrs Merkel stressed her commitment to her disputed refugee policy, saying Germany, Europe's economic powerhouse, has a duty to protect those fleeing war and conflict in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

In a nod to critics in her conservative party, especially in Bavaria, where most of the migrants enter Germany, she said migrants who do not need protection must be sent home.