The German foreign ministry on Thursday denied reports that closure of the sale was immediate, saying that officials were continuing to review the proposed sale. In its Thursday edition, the daily Berliner Zeitung had reported that the German government was close to reaching agreements with both China and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which would conduct regular control visits to the plant to make sure plutonium produced there is not used for military purposes.

According to news reports, experts from the German economics ministry are currently working with IAEA officials in Vienna to reach an agreement on this issue. It remains unclear who would pay for IAEA control visits.

Such an agreement is crucial to secure support from the junior coalition partner in the German government, the Greens. German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, a member of the Greens party, will have to give his approval for the sale. Many party members oppose the deal and an announcement of the sale is therefore likely to be postponed until parliamentary elections in the city state of Hamburg, which will take place on Feb. 29.

Reliable assurances needed

Gernot Erler, a deputy parliamentary leader of the governing Social Democrats, said he didn't expect a decision until March. "The Chinese have to give us reliable assurances to render our concerns irrelevant," Erler told Financial Times Deutschland.

German industrial giant Siemens had asked the government to grant permission for the sale of the disassembled plant in Hanau near Frankfurt last year. The plan emerged during German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's December trip to China and provoked outrage among nuclear energy opponents. The German government, which has begun phasing out nuclear energy at home, said it will approve the sale unless concerns about military use cannot be eliminated.

The European Union still has an arms embargo against China in place, but Schröder and French President Jacques Chirac have come out in support of scrapping it.