Germany under pressure to be free of US nuclear weapons

The German government has been under mounting pressure from inside to urge the United States to pull out its nuclear weapons from country.

Among a total of about 480 nuclear weapons in Europe, some 150 are stationed on German soil.

In an interview with daily newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau, Gert Weisskirchen, foreign affairs spokesman for the ruling Social Democrats (SPD) demanded the withdrawal of the US nuclear weapons from Germany.

The German government's peace politics is unbelievable "so long as the government does not separate itself from the nuclear weapons in Germany," Weisskirchen said.

US nuclear weapons in Germany were "a relic of the Cold War," said SPD's ruling partner Green party chief Claudia Roth at another newspaper interview on Monday.

The opposition FDP leader Guido Westerwelle on Monday moved a step further by urging Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer to propose the withdrawal of the US nuclear weapons in Germany at a conference in New York on reviewing the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Westerwelle said the nuclear weapons had become superfluous since the end of the Cold War.

The 2005 Review Conference of the Parties to the Nuclear NPT met on Monday at the UN headquarters in New York.

At the conference, which will be held from May 2 to 27, 2005, states will examine the implementation of the treaty's provisions since 2000.