20,000 Germans sign peace petition as US strikes continue
( 2001-10-10 10:21 ) (7 )

German pacifists have delivered a 20,000-name petition to Germany Deputy Foreign Minister Ludger Volmer calling on the government to avoid getting involved in the US-led military action in Afghanistan.

In the petition, delivered Tuesday in Berlin, pacifist organisations warned the government against involving German troops in the military operations which went into their fourth day Wednesday.

The protesters argued that war is always an attack on innocent civilians.

Some 50,000 people are expected to turn out for an anti-war protest in the German capital on Saturday, organisers said.

US President George W. Bush on Tuesday praised German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's support since September 11 strikes on the United States, saying he had "no more steadfast friend" in the global war on terrorism.

"There is no more steadfast friend in this coalition than Germany, and I'm proud to have him here," Bush said during a joint appearance with Schroeder at the White House after the two leaders met in Washington.

The German leader said the meeting showed that "in these difficult times friendship must prevail and does prevail" and expressed Germany's "deepest solidarity" in word and deed with the United States.

Schroeder praised Bush for the "fantastic way" he ordered food and medicine drops for displaced Afghans even as military strikes pounded Afghanistan's Taliban rulers and reiterated the message often heard from the White House that military action targets the suspected terror mastermind, not all Muslims.

"It is not at all directed against Islam. It is, rather, directed against Osama bin Laden and the very ruthless regime behind him," he said through an interpreter.