The German chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, has said that Germany will not ask for the extradition of the Kurdish separatist leader, Abdullah Ocalan, from Italy.

Speaking after a meeting in Bonn with the Italian prime minister, Massimo D'Alema, Mr Schroeder said he wanted to maintain the peace between the Turkish and Kurdish populations in Germany.

He said he had agreed to work with Mr D'Alema to have Mr Ocalan appear before a European court.

Rome had been pressing Bonn to proceed with an eight-year-old extradition warrant for Mr Ocalan, who's currently detained in Italy, while indicating it was not prepared to hand him over to Turkey.

There are some two-and-a-half million Turks living in Germany, nearly half-a-million of whom are Kurds.