"The chancellor knows that I am more sceptical on this issue than him, just as my party and my parliamentary party are," Fischer said in an interview with Die Zeit weekly to be published on Wednesday.

Fischer is a leading member of the Greens, who form the ruling coalition with Schroeder's Social Democratic Party (SPD).

"The EU foreign ministers are working towards a consensus that we have not yet found: on human rights, regional stability, an agreement on a restrictive code of conduct for European weapons exports, and the objections from the United States," Fischer added.

But Fischer refused to disclose how he would vote when the issue is put to a vote in the Bundestag lower house of parliament.

The conservative opposition Christian Democrats are intending to put forward a motion later this month opposing any lifting of the arms ban on China.

Schroeder thinks the 16-year-old embargo, imposed after the 1989 massacre of pro-democracy students in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, is outdated and maintains that scrapping it would be a "symbolic gesture" to a country he believes is on the path to democracy.

The rest of the European Union appears to be backing away from its original June target for lifting the embargo in the face of strong opposition from the United States and concern over a recently introduced law giving the Chinese army the legal means to invade Taiwan if the island seeks independence.