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Greens back leader over Nato

At a special meeting in Bielefeld to discuss party disunity over the Kosovo conflict, the 800 delegate backed a compromise motion proposing a limited unconditional halt to the bombing.

Party leaders said the new motion would not undermine the Foreign Minister, Joschka Fischer, who threatened to resign if the pacifist resolution was approved.

Earlier, Mr Fischer had to be taken to hospital briefly, suffering from a perforated eardrum, after one protester pelted him with red paint.

He faced fierce heckling from some delegates as he appealed to them not to undermine the German Government and Nato by demanding a permanent ceasefire.

The pacifist party, which is the junior partner in Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's government, has been deeply split over Germany's participation in Nato air strikes.

Greens on the far-left of the party argued that German participation in the Nato campaign was wrong and should be stopped immediately. They said the fundamental principles of the Green Party were at stake.

But self-styled "realist" Green MPs argued that the bombing was both necessary and justifiable.

Threat to unity averted

If a permanent ceasefire had been approved, it would have made the Greens' continuation in government impossible, and would have meant an end to the red-green coalition just eight months after it took power.

It would also have been a damaging blow to Nato unity.

Relevant Stories

Fifty days on: How credible is Nato? (12 May 99 | Europe)
Nato to step up bombing (13 May 99 | Europe)
The costs of war and peace (12 May 99 | Kosovo)

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