GERMANY:Hamburg police have admitted intercepting and opening post as part of an anti-terrorism offensive ahead of next month's G8 summit in Germany.
Civil rights activists called the measure an "expression of hysteria" of the authorities, while G8 critics said it was another worrying reminder of East German security methods.
On Monday German investigators admitted they had taken odour samples from a handful of left-wing extremists to help sniffer dogs track them down later if needed, a surveillance method widely used by the East German secret police, the Stasi.
In recent weeks, police have conducted several controversial raids on left-wing centres and groups that authorities say are planning to disrupt the summit.
Left-wing politicians call the campaign an attempt to criminalise the left-wing protesters and even say it is a "move towards a preventative security state".
A spokesman for Deutsche Post in Hamburg confirmed yesterday that unsupervised police officers had sorted through the post in Hamburg sorting offices from Tuesday to Thursday.
He was unable to say how many letters and packages had been confiscated or opened. "They came with a court order; we had to let them in," he said.
A Hamburg state protection police spokesman confirmed the "court-approved confiscations".
"I back these measures because they serve to throw light on the attacks in Hamburg in recent days," said Hamburg police chief Werner Jantosch, referring to a wave of attacks on luxury cars believed to be part of a pre-G8 warm-up campaign by left-wing extremist groups.
Germany's Christian Democrat interior minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, responsible for domestic security, said yesterday that the searches were not "systematic" and the G8 security measures were "not overboard, but reasonable to ensure that the summit participants can meet in peace".
That peace could be in doubt after a court ruled yesterday that demonstrators can gather up to 200m (660ft) in front of a 13km-long (eight-mile) security fence surrounding the G8 summit resort of Heiligendamm next month. The court struck down plans for a 5km (three-mile) exclusion zone around the fence.
Meanwhile, US officials have criticised measures in a draft German communique to reduce climate-warming carbon emissions at the summit. The document was leaked to Reuters.