Cologne, Germany  - A senior Jewish official in Germany said Friday he would approve publication of Adolf Hitler's hate book Mein Kampf with annotations on the internet and in book form.

Publication of the Nazi dictator's writings remains banned in Germany under copyright law. The state of Bavaria, which seized all of Hitler's personal assets, claims the copyright and allows no reprints.

With copyright set to expire in 2015, 70 years after Hitler's death, a museum of Nazi crimes said this week it was urgent to de- fang Mein Kampf by bringing out a scholarly edition that pointed out its absurdities before the plain text re-enters circulation.

Stephan Kramer, secretary general of Germany's national council of Jews, said on Deutschlandfunk radio, "Basically I'm in favour of it being made public with comments, and even going beyond normal book form into becoming available on the internet."

He said his council was willing to help with the annotations and to lobby the state of Bavaria to licence a reprint.

The appeal for republication was initiated this week by the council of the Nazi Rally Grounds Documentation Centre in Nuremberg.

That site includes a museum depicting violence by Nazi thugs and explaining Nazi propaganda lies and a signposted walk around the ruins of the megalomaniac Nazi park in the Bavarian city.

Courses at the museum teach school classes and adult education groups how to resist the lure of Nazi ideas.

Nazi parties are illegal in Germany along with slogans and insignia. Surveys in Germany have established that many German school children only have a vague idea of who Adolf Hitler was or what he advocated. (dpa)