DARMSTADT (Germany), Oct 16: Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said on Tuesday Germany may soon join US military action against Osama bin Laden and warned his junior coalition partner, the Greens, to stop calling for an end to the strikes.

“I expect that we will soon have to provide greater help, also with our military capabilities,” Schroeder said in a speech during a visit to the southern town of Darmstadt.

Germany’s present contribution in the form of service personnel on NATO AWACS surveillance aircraft flying over North America was “not all we are going to face,” Schroeder said.

Schroeder, in Darmstadt and then attending a banking conference in nearby Frankfurt, flatly rejected calls by some leaders of his Greens coalition partners that the bombing should be halted because it was causing civilian casualties.

“It is up to the chancellor to determine the political course and anyone who violates that principle should be aware of the consequences,” Schroeder said. “I don’t have any intention of giving up any of my authority in this area.”

German participation in action outside the NATO area would require parliamentary approval under a post-Nazi constitution drawn up to prevent a return to militarism. Only since the mid-1990s has Germany sent troops abroad — to the Balkans — and such deployments remain controversial.

COALITION OPTIONS: A pacifist Green vote against sending troops would probably not suffice to block the deployment because Schroeder’s main opposition, the conservative Christian Democrats and liberal Free Democrats, have said they would back sending troops.

But it would embarrass Schroeder, who has pledged “unlimited solidarity” with the United States following the September 11 attacks, and could doom his coalition with the Greens.

Schroeder visited US President George W. Bush in Washington last week but declined to confirm media reports that he offered surveillance aircraft and transport aircraft to help deliver humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.—Reuters