BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany abstained from voting for a U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing a no-fly zone over Libya because of worries there would be civilian victims like in Iraq and Afghanistan, Berlin said on Friday.

Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told congress the center-right government was determined that German troops would not take part in a military operation in Libya, and favored instead tougher sanctions against the Libyan leader.

“Any military operation brings civilian victims,” said the minister. “We know that from painful experience. We have often talked about this regarding operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.”

Germany said earlier on Friday it had abstained from the Security Council vote for a no-fly zone and military action to protect civilians, because it carried “considerable dangers and risks” and might not succeed in ousting Muammar Gaddafi.

A foreign ministry spokesman said that in behind-the-scene talks ahead of the U.N. vote, Germany questioned “how effective a no-fly zone or eventual air strikes would be in ensuring the protection of civilians or bringing down the Gaddafi regime, and what would happen if these measures would not be enough.”

“Would ground troops then have to be sent in?” asked foreign ministry spokesman Andreas Peschke at a regular news conference.

Westerwelle sought to mollify Germany’s NATO allies like France for not backing them on Libya, by saying he “understands and respects our partners in the Security Council, the European Union and in the Arab League who, after weighing up all the arguments, came to a different conclusion than we did.”

BERLIN (Reuters) – Angela Merkel’s Free Democrat (FDP) allies see nuclear power fears having a limited impact on German voting in state elections, and believe their leader Guido Westerwelle has recouped popularity with his diplomacy in North Africa.

FDP Secretary-General Christian Lindner told Reuters on Wednesday the party supported Merkel’s nuclear energy policies despite her being forced by the Japanese crisis to backtrack on a 2010 decision to extend the lifespans of nuclear power plants.

Germany’s uniquely drastic response to the Japanese nuclear power problems is set to be a major factor in a crucial March 27 election in the economic powerhouse state of Baden-Wuerttemberg which Merkel’s conservatives have run for more than 60 years.

In a state with Germany’s oldest nuclear plant, where other local environmental issues already top the agenda, her Christian Democrats and the FDP now face losing even more votes to the anti-nuclear Greens and their likely Social Democrat partners.

Lindner, who is second-in-command of the FDP at the age of just 32, said in an interview that the decision to extend the life of German nuclear plants by an average 12 years last autumn had been and remained “politically responsible.”

Merkel suspended the decision this week for three months, during which Germany’s seven oldest nuclear power plants will be shut down and undergo safety checks.

“I assume that after (the three-month moratorium) the future development of our energy policy will be different from before the Japanese crisis,” said Lindner.

BERLIN (Reuters) – Schalke 04 sacked Felix Magath as coach on Wednesday, just a week after he took the club into the Champions League quarter-finals for only the second time.

Magath, who also secured a place in the German Cup final with a win over holders Bayern Munich this month, had a contract until 2013, with the club deciding to bring it to a premature end for reasons they would not disclose.

“There are very good reasons for this separation,” Schalke boss Clemens Toennies said on the club website (www.schalke04.de).

“We will not comment on them, however, as there is an ongoing legal procedure.”

Magath joined in 2009 with the stated goal of winning Schalke’s first German league title since 1958 within the four years of his original contract.

While they have performed above expectations in the Champions League, their Bundesliga form has been poor this season, with the club currently down in 10th place.

Fans have also been angered by a transfer policy that has seen 40 players signed in the last 18 months.

BERLIN, March 16 (Reuters) – Schalke 04 sacked Felix Magath as coach on Wednesday, just a week after he took the club into the Champions League quarter-finals for only the second time.

Magath, who also secured a place in the German Cup final with a win over holders Bayern Munich this month, had a contract until 2013, with the club deciding to bring it to a premature end for reasons they would not disclose.

“There are very good reasons for this separation,” Schalke boss Clemens Toennies said on the club website (www.schalke04.de).

“We will not comment on them, however, as there is an ongoing legal procedure.”

Magath joined in 2009 with the stated goal of winning Schalke’s first German league title since 1958 within the four years of his original contract.

While they have performed above expectations in the Champions League, their Bundesliga form has been poor this season, with the club currently down in 10th place.

Fans have also been angered by a transfer policy that has seen 40 players signed in the last 18 months.

BERLIN (Reuters) – Chancellor Angela Merkel will overcome her coalition’s objections to a deal on boosting euro bailout funds but Japan’s earthquake poses a sudden challenge on nuclear policy that could lose her votes in state elections.

Germany’s center-right chancellor had desperately wanted to avoid negative headlines from the weekend euro summit like Bild daily’s “Euro rescue getting more and more expensive” on Monday.

But her coalition appeared to accept her decision, however reluctantly. While initially angry that she ignored “red lines” set by her blocs on the use of rescue funds, her conservatives and their liberal allies backed the summit’s outcome on Monday.

But analysts said that, while her euro bet will pay off, she may find it more difficult to live down being forced by the risk of a reactor meltdown in Japan to make a sudden, embarrassing climbdown on Monday from her unpopular decision in 2010 to extend the lifespan of aging nuclear plants.

“The speed with which Merkel has reacted shows how worried she is that, because of Japan, people could vote for the Greens in the state election in Baden-Wuerttemberg,” said Carsten Koschmieder, a political scientist at Berlin’s Free University.

Economists like Berenberg bank’s Holger Schmieding believe that on the euro crisis, the politics “could be somewhat tricky in Berlin” but parliament will eventually pass a crisis package to be finalized by European Union leaders on March 24-25.

But two days after that Merkel faces the third and most crucial of seven state votes this year, in Baden-Wuerttemberg, where the nuclear issue will play a big role in what could be a defeat for the conservatives after more than 60 years in power.

MADRID/BERLIN (Reuters) – Spain is confident euro zone leaders will agree to strengthen their multi-billion euro rescue fund at a summit next month, but European Central Bank member Axel Weber said enough has been done already.

In an interview with Reuters, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Madrid was convincing markets Spain was getting its economy in order and he was confident Germany would support a stronger euro zone fund despite Chancellor Angela Merkel’s domestic problems.

“We are winning the battle, but I still have my guard up because we have to implement all the reforms that have generated more confidence,” Zapatero told Reuters Insider television.

The euro zone’s 17 leaders will meet in Brussels on March 11 to discuss strengthening the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), the 440 billion euro fund set up last May and used to bail out Ireland.

Germany remains reluctant to back an increase in the EFSF’s effective capacity from around 250 billion euros to the full 440 billion because of domestic opposition to the move but Zapatero said he was hopeful of Merkel’s support.

“I am confident, confident in the capacity and commitment of Chancellor Merkel,” he said.

EU policymakers expect Germany to support a strengthened EFSF if the rest of the euro zone agrees measures Berlin is pressing to make their economies more competitive.

BERLIN (Reuters) – Chancellor Angela Merkel picked her aide Jens Weidmann as German central bank chief to succeed Axel Weber, officials said on Wednesday, making it less likely she will insist on a German running the European Central Bank.

Weidmann, who is 42, has spent five years as Merkel’s top economic adviser, helping her lead Germany through the financial crisis, recession and euro zone debt crisis.

As Bundesbank chief he gets a seat on the ECB’s governing council.

A spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s junior coalition partners, the Free Democrats, confirmed Weidmann’s appointment and that his new vice-president would be Sabine Lautenschlaeger, from the German banking regulator Bafin.

Merkel and Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble were due to give a joint statement on the Bundesbank succession at 1215 GMT.

Weidmann’s nomination to succeed the effective but sometimes abrasive inflation-hawk Weber, who steps down on April 30, was expected but may throw open the contest to succeed Jean-Claude Trichet as ECB president to candidates from other countries.

Fellow-German Juergen Stark, another hawk, is already on the ECB’s executive board.

BERLIN (Reuters) – Axel Weber’s shock withdrawal from the ECB leadership contest has increased pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel to impose tough German fiscal rules on euro zone partners to satisfy her coalition and voters at home.

Weber’s decision to step down, reported by Reuters on Wednesday, was widely seen in Berlin as a blow to Merkel and her drive to see a German replace Jean-Claude Trichet when his term as president of the European Central Bank ends in October.

German media said she had lost a vital ally in what some depict as the battle to save the euro. Opposition politicians accused her of throwing away a chance to put a home-grown candidate at the helm of the central bank which sets monetary policy for the 17-nation euro zone.

People close to Merkel have said for weeks that her main priority has been to ensure the new “comprehensive package” euro leaders have promised to unveil next month has Berlin’s policy fingerprints all over it.

Having lost a major bargaining chip in Weber, she has even less wiggle room to compromise with EU partners at two crucial summits — on March 11 and March 24-25 — which will shape the future of Europe’s 12-year old single currency zone.

“I think that Germany will now try much harder to push through its points,” said Daniela Schwarzer, an analyst at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.

As she has been forced to do for months, Merkel must balance the demands of domestic constituents, who expect her to drive a hard bargain in Brussels, and the needs of European partners, who are willing to accept some but not all of Berlin’s demands.

MUNICH (Reuters) – The United Nations on Sunday drove home the warning from Western nations that a transition to democracy in Egypt should not be rushed to avoid worsening the crisis and destabilising the entire Middle East.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon backed up calls at a security conference in Munich from the United States and Europe for a rapid change of power in Egypt followed by a more sedate transition through democracy and eventually free elections.

Ban told reporters he had urged authorities in Cairo “to make the necessary changes and reforms as soon as possible. I hope the leaders of Egypt heed the calls of their own people.”

That was in tune with the message delivered in Munich by U.S. Secretary Hillary Clinton, Britain’s David Cameron and Germany’s Angela Merkel that 82-year-old President Hosni Mubarak should step down now, if that is what the Egyptian people want.

“The more this is put off, the more we are likely to get an Egypt that we wouldn’t welcome,” said Cameron.

“There will be a change in Egypt,” said Merkel, who added that it would be remiss of the international community “not to side with people who are speaking out against injustice.”

But Western leaders and diplomats were careful to emphasize that it should be the Egyptians who decide.

MUNICH (Reuters) – The Quartet of Middle East peace negotiators said on Saturday they would give high priority to the impact of the current unrest in Egypt on the stalled peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

The United Nations, European Union, Russia and the United States said further delays in resuming talks would be “detrimental to prospects for regional peace and security.”

“The Quartet took note of the dramatic developments in Egypt and elsewhere in the region in recent days,” they said in a statement after a meeting on the sidelines of a security conference in Munich.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov took part in the meeting.

“The Quartet members considered the implications of these events for Arab-Israeli Peace and agreed to discuss this further in upcoming meetings as a matter of high priority,” they said.

The Quartet “strongly urged the parties on that basis to overcome current obstacles in the peace process.”

The statement said the four parties reiterated their support for concluding the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations by September this year and said the Quartet would meet again in mid-March on the way ahead.