Munich - Vice President Joseph Biden is to make a "major" speech about the new US administration's defence and foreign policy at the end of next week in Munich, the organizer of a German conference said Thursday.

Wolfgang Ischinger said the address at the annual Munich security conference would set out the position of the administration of President Barack Obama, which was why Biden was attending rather than the US defence secretary who usually represents Washington.

Augsburg, Germany - German police raided homes in Bavaria state Thursday, seizing recorded neo-Nazi music and other evidence to close down a skinhead network estimated to have 15 to 20 members.

The rightists, based in the Swabia region, styled themselves the Hate Crew of Swabia, making no secret of their racist attitudes.

Police based in the city of Augsburg had been investigating the group for months and hope to indict seven men aged 26 to 33 for spreading Nazi propaganda, sedition, glorifying violence, promoting racism, money laundering and evasion of taxes.

Wiesbaden, Germany  - Beer consumption in Germany, which once prided itself as a world champion of beer culture, has declined for yet another year as Germans reach for a glass of fizzy water instead, national statistics issued Thursday show.

Domestic sales by the German breweries fell 0.9 per cent last year to 8.7 billion litres, and exports were down even more sharply, the Federal Statistics Office said.

EU nations took 1.1 billion litres, down 1.2 per cent and non-EU nations 0.3 billion, down 4.1 per cent.

Berlin - The German Government confirmed Thursday that it had held talks with tyre maker Continental AG and its new owner ball- bearing maker Schaeffler Group over possible state aid to help the giant car parts groups through the global economic crisis.

"The talks were constructive," German Technology and Economics Minister Michael Glos said.

The two companies having a combined debt of about 22 billion euros (29 billion dollars).