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Fischer to involve IAEA in sale of plutonium plant to China: press

IRNA

Berlin, Dec 9, IRNA -- German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, 
angry over the possible controversial sale of a plutonium facility 
to China, is now seeking to "involve the International Atomic Energy 
Agency (IAEA)," The Frankfurter Rundschau reported Tuesday. 
His concern over a possible Chinese abuse of the Hanau nuclear 
facility, which can produce weapons-grade plutonium, is shared by top 
members of his influential Greens party -- the junior coalition 
partner of the ruling Social Democrats. 
According to Spiegel Online, the Greens are even looking to 
engage NATO and the USA in the possible deal with China, raised 
by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder during his trip last week to 
Beijing. 
"Delivering the Hanau facility (to China) also strongly effects 
the security interests of NATO and the United States. Both must be 
engaged ahead of a sale," Spiegel Online cited Baerbel Hoehn, the 
Environment Minister of the German State of North-Rhine Westfalia, as 
saying. 
Schroeder`s concessions to China have sparked widespread outrage 
here, with the Greens party underlining the hypocracy of a deal to 
export a nuclear fuel reprocessing facility when the Berlin 
government itself propagates a withdrawal from atomic energy. 
Last week, a government spokesman confirmed that Germany`s 
Siemens company had filed a "formal request" for the sale of the 
plant to China. 
VKP/212 
End