GERMANY: A security official with world soccer governing body FIFA has suggested that Germany should break a five-decade taboo and allow domestic deployments of soldiers to increase security during this summer's soccer World Cup.
The German constitution bans Bundeswehr missions in Germany except during natural disasters - a post-war answer to Hitler's use of the Wehrmacht to turn Nazi Germany into a militarised police state.
Existing plans foresee soldiers aiding World Cup organisation without any military or security duties.
But the latest Steven Spielberg film Munich has revived memories of the security disaster that was the 1972 Olympic Games and reawakened discussion about using soldiers to secure stadiums, embassies and airports when two million football fans arrive in June.
"We believe that if a country is convinced it would like to have an additional support for the police, then it's appropriate to use it," said Walter Gagg, director of stadium security for the soccer world governing body FIFA.
"Look at Turin (Winter Olympics) now, and how many troops are deployed there just to be able to organise these games."
Interior minister Wolfgang Schäuble has said federal and state police forces would be "very stretched" during the World Cup.
"No one wants to see tanks in front of train stations or stadiums, this is completely absurd," he said.
"Yet you can imagine what would happen if somewhere a bomb in a back pack would explode."
Mr Schäuble's suggestion has met with resistance from defence minister Franz Josef Jung and, after a Bundestag airing last week, appears to have been put on ice for now.
There are plans to station soldiers trained to work in nuclear, biological and chemical attacks in each of Germany's 12 host cities.
Special helicopters will carry any attack victims to a special emergency hospital in the western city of Kaiserslautern and Nato will provide 18 AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) planes during the tournament, as they did during last year's papal visit to Cologne.
The entire security plan involving the army will cost around €5 million.
The federal and state governments will cover €1.4 million and they want World Cup organisers FIFA to pay the rest.
FIFA official Walter Gagg said he was "more than satisfied" at stadium security levels.
"Football has never, really never, been sought out by terrorist attacks at this level," he said.
"We are convinced we won't have any terrorist actions against the soccer World Cup."