01 November 2004	Monday	17 Ramazan 1425

LEINEFELDE, Oct 31: Germany's resurgent far-right National Democratic Party on Sunday sealed an alliance with another extremist grouping in a bid to win parliamentary seats in the general election in two years' time.

The leaders of the National Democratic Party (NPD) and the German People's Union (DVU) said in a press conference that their parties were putting aside decades of opposition to enter joint lists of candidates for the 2006 national elections and the European elections three years later.

Speaking after the conclusion of the NPD's two-day conference in this small town in eastern Germany, NPD leader Udo Voigt said the two anti-immigration parties had formed "a successful alliance".

"For years, even decades, we have fought against each other politically. Now we have done what common sense demands and decided that we are not as far apart as we had thought," Voigt said.

"We agree that Germany is an occupied country and want to see a new policy towards foreigners."

DVU leader Gerhard Frey, who had earlier addressed the NPD conference, said he believed the two parties "complemented each other".

Voigt also renewed his call for another extremist grouping, the Republikaner, to join the electoral alliance. They have so far refused to enter talks.

Only one party from the far-right has won seats in the Bundestag lower house of parliament since World War II and that was immediately after the war.-AFP