A baby girl born to Turkish parents in Germany three hours into the new millennium has been chosen as the national symbol of a new law granting citizenship to the children of immigrants.

Government officials took gifts of a teddy bear, a baby's dummy and a copy of the German Constitution to Mesut and Saliha Kurt, proud parents of their daughter Sema.

Under the new law, which came after an agonisingly long national debate, children of "guest workers" born in the country will automatically become full citizens.

But earlier plans to allow them to hold dual nationality - in line with other European Union nations - were dropped after the government faced massive opposition to their original proposals.

A child of immigrant parents will have to choose between the two nationalities by the time they are 23-years-old.

Blood and belonging

The new law brings to an end Germany's often-criticised citizenship laws dating back to before the First World War.

These defined citizenship by bloodline rather than geographical accident of birth.

Under that legislation, some seven million foreigners living and working in Germany were not allowed citizenship, but ethnic Germans whose families have lived for centuries across eastern Europe could claim a passport.

Around two million of Germany's immigrant population are from Turkey or of Turkish descent.

Among the official party greeting Mr and Mrs Kurt's daughter was Cem Ozdemir, the first Turkish-born MP to be elected to the German parliament.

"These babies born today won't experience what I experienced," said Mr Ozdemir, a key campaigner for the new law. "They won't grow up as foreigner.

"They will grow up as citizens and it will change the future of this country."

While Mr Ozdemir warned that many of his own community would remain sceptical of the new law because of the dual nationality ruling, he appealed to them not to play into the hands of racists.

"As long as people who live here for 30 years still say, 'I am a foreigner,' you cannot expect Germans to say anything else," he said.

The law also eases restrictions on foreign-born nationals claiming citizenship with the residence requirement slashed from 15 to eight years.

Campaigners say that the law still excludes the first generation of Turkish guest workers, arguably part of the backbone of Germany's post-war economic miracle, because of the dual nationality ruling and stricter language requirements.

False starts

The bill to change the law failed when it first came before the parliament in March 1998 when the then-governing Christian Democrats voted down the proposals.

The plan were resurrected as part of Chancellor Gerhard Schroder's Social Democrats-Green coalition but it was watered down when the government lost control of the upper house of parliament.

The legislation eventually passed into law last summer despite a five million signature petition gathered by opposition parties.

The new law has also faced opposition among the Turkish community itself with newspapers leading a campaign against it.

Turkish critics say that that the dual nationality dilemma means that many Turks will be denied the right to inherit land, run a business or even be buried in the country of their ancestors.