Germany will refuse visas to anyone seeking to take part in a controversial Arab and Islamic conference next month in Berlin, the foreign ministry said on Friday.
"Fundamentalists and preachers of hate have no place in Germany," foreign ministry spokesman Walter Lindner said.
Therefore, German authorities abroad had been instructed "to not issue visas to anyone stating that attending this conference was the purpose of their visit," he added.
On their website, the organisers of the "first Arab Islamic Congress in Europe" say the event will take place October 1-3 in the German capital although no exact location is given.
Under the headline "Humanity on hold," the website said "say yes to the liberation of all the occupied territories and countries in struggle against the American-Zionist hegemony and occupation" in the Palestinian territories and Iraq.
German Interior Minister Otto Schily said Friday he was examining every possibility to prevent the conference taking place, although he added there had been no formal application to hold the event.
"There are other possibilities to prevent the meeting taking place," Schily said after a meeting with US Secretary for Homeland Security Tom Ridge.
The Central Council of Muslims in Germany and the Islamic Council of Germany have distanced themselves from the conference.
"We have not been invited to the Congress and we do not know the organisers," said a spokesman for the Central Council, Mounier Azzaoui.
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