"Everything in politics must be done to prevent the war from happening," he said in a recent interview with the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

He supported the German government's stance that Germany would not send any troops for the war, saying: "The decision corresponds to my personal conviction."

"My worries are that a war could change the whole structure of the Arabic area," the president continued.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder also said Germany sticks to its basic position in an interview with the newsweekly Der Spiegel.

He was asked in the interview how Germany could vote on the Iraq issue in the United Nations Security Council should it come to vote.

"Our position is clear. We will not take part in a military action. And we will do everything so that a war is still avoidable," he said.

The German government has repeatedly voiced objection to an Iraq war, a stance that helped Schroeder get re-elected last September.

But Berlin later moved to soften its anti-war tone in an attempt to repair strained relations with Washington caused by differing opinions over Iraq.

And as Germany became a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council from January and could preside over the decisive discussions on Iraq on February, Berlin toned down its position further.

Leading officals including Schroeder and Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer declined to rule out a "yes" vote on the Iraq issue should it come to vote in the UN Security Council.

Schroeder said it was still open how Germany would vote on the Iraq issue as "nobody knows whether it will even come to a vote orwhat will be voted on."

Germany could only decide how to vote "when the conditions are known," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency January 6, 2002)