The German government has won a vote in parliament over its handling of safety questions arising from the shipment abroad of nuclear waste.

Opposition parties called for the Environment Minister, Angela Merkel, to resign in the wake of revelations that convoys of nuclear waste sent to Britain and France contained radiation levels up to three-thousand times greater than allowed.

But the government maintained that responsibility for the radiation levels lay with the nuclear industry.

Mrs Merkel has suspended all waste shipments pending an investigation, and has drawn up plans to strengthen monitoring procedures.