 PARIS - Paris backs a call by Berlin to discuss at NATO the withdrawal of the remaining US nuclear weapons stationed in Germany, the International Herald Tribune reported Thursday citing France's defense minister. The Paris-based daily said that in an interview French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie backed a call made earlier this by her German counterpart Peter Struck for a possible withdrawal in NATO committees. While showing understanding for the demand by Germany's governing center-left coalition for the weapons to be removed, she refused to explicitly call on Washington to withdraw them, the newspaper reported. | You don't have to 'call' on us to remove them, just ask. We can remove the rest of our combat forces from Germany while we're at it. |
An estimated 150 US nuclear weapons are stationed on German soil out of a total of about 480 in Europe. |