Vienna  - Austria's far-right parties on Wednesday said they oppose a blanket rehabilitation of deserters from Hitler's Wehrmacht, after a majority in Parliament agreed to revoke sentences passed during World War II.

The ruling Social Democrats and conservative People's Party agreed with the Green Party on the draft of a bill that not only rehabilitates deserters, but also annuls Nazi-era decisions that targeted homosexuals and enforced sterilizations and abortions.

Far-right Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache said "a collective acquittal for deserters would be a provocation for those who really should be respected."

Ewald Stadler of the Alliance for the Future of Austria criticized that the planned law does not distinguish between resistance fighters and criminals, and said it might actually give war criminals who deserted a free pass.

An estimated 4,000 death sentences were issued for Austrians who fled the Wehrmacht, of which 1,200 to 1,400 were carried out.

The country was annexed by the German Reich in 1938, and 270,000 Austrians fought in Hitler's army.  dpa