A parliamentary motion brought by the Greens and Schroeder's Social Democratic Party (SPD) opposed lifting the 15-year-old embargo, introduced after the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing's Tianamen Square, until certain conditions were met.

They said that as long as there was no guidelines from the EU on arms exports, the embargo should remain in place.

Any changes should be also dependent on China signing up to the United Nations pact on political and human rights, the motion added.

The foreign affairs spokesman for the Greens' parliamentary group, Ludger Volmer, told the chamber that China's tensions with Taiwan and "massive deficits" in the area of human rights "make arms exports to China out of the question at the moment".

Schroeder first advocated removing the embargo on a visit to China last December, making Germany the second major European country after France to encourage the move. Britain and Italy have since expressed their support for such a move, although Denmark and the Netherlands oppose it.

Government spokesman Bela Anda said on Wednesday that Schroeder remained convinced that the embargo should be lifted.

Berlin has often noted how much China had changed since it sent in tanks in 1989 to break up the pro-democracy protest in Tianamen Square, killing hundreds.

China last month called for the restrictions to be removed, calling them "a product of the Cold War".

The United States however remains adamant that the embargo should remain, arguing that its lifting would contribute to regional instability and condone China's continued poor human rights record.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.