Germany backed NATO military action against Serbia yesterday after a meeting between the outgoing Chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl, and his successor, Mr Gerhard Schroder.
The German parliament will meet in a special session on Friday to approve the participation of German soldiers and aircraft in the NATO mission.
Mr Schroder and the chairman of his Social Democrats (SPD), Mr Oskar Lafontaine, were at pains yesterday to stress that there will be no change in German foreign policy under a new centre-left government.
But some of Mr Schroder's coalition partners in the Greens are unhappy that NATO military action is being initiated without a mandate from the UN.
Foreign and security policy was top of the agenda for yesterday's coalition talks between the SPD and the Greens. The parties were expected to try to agree on a common stance on a possible NATO intervention in the Kosovo crisis.
Mr Guenter Verheugen, the Social Democrat expected to become deputy foreign minister in the new government, said he believed the parties would reach broad agreement on foreign policy.
"In terms of working together on foreign and security policy there have been no clashes," he said.
Dr Kohl's government has promised NATO 14 Tornado jet fighters and 500 Bundeswehr soldiers for a possible action against Serbia. It was originally hoped that the force would be approved by the new German Bundestag when it convenes later this month.
But the pace of events has obliged the outgoing Bundestag, where Dr Kohl's centre-right coalition has a majority, to take the decision on Friday.
NATO air strikes present a particular difficulty for the environmentalist Greens, many of whom have pacifist roots. Their parliamentary leader, Mr Joschka Fischer, who is expected to become foreign minister in the new administration, insists that Germany must not have a go-it alone foreign policy.
On a visit to Washington last week, he reassured President Clinton that Germany would continue to be a reliable partner in the western alliance.
But a number of left-wing Greens yesterday expressed concern about the launch of military action without UN approval and some may vote against the deployment of German troops on Friday.
