Berlin - German President Horst Koehler marked Holocaust memorial day Tuesday with the promise that Germany would keep alive the memory of Nazi crimes and its victims.

"The grief for the victims, the shame over the terrible deeds and the will for reconciliation with the Jewish people and the former enemies of war - they lead us to the roots of our republic," Koehler said in an address to the national parliament.

Berlin - As a language of scholarship, German is "on its deathbed," with most academics speaking at conferences and publishing their research in English, the German Culture Council warned Tuesday.

The days when the scholars of the world learned German so they could read the latest findings in science, engineering and the arts are long gone. In science today, only 1 per cent of the papers published are in German, the council said.

Many German academics prefer to publish in English.

Berlin - Germany joined France Tuesday in offering credit to buyers of new Airbus planes amid fears that the reluctance of world banks to lend may be undermining the plane manufacturer's sales.

Germany's federal bank, KfW, and export credit guarantees agency, Hermes, will enable customers to keep buying Airbus jets.

"The objective is to help reliable customers abroad to solve their financing problems, thus securing exports of our planes," Peter Hintze, the government's aerospace coordinator, told Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa in Berlin.

Munich- German engineering giant Siemens got off to a good start in the new business year, reporting an increase in earnings Tuesday while expressing cautious optimism for the future.

Earnings for the first quarter climbed 7 per cent from a year ago to 19.6 billion euros (25.6 billion dollars), the company said at the start of its annual general meeting.

Profit in the energy, industry and health sectors rose 20 per cent to 2 billion euros in the financial year ending in September, although net income slumped from 6.4 billion euros to 1.2 billion euros.

Berlin- Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet on Tuesday approved Germany's biggest postwar fiscal stimulus package, earmarking 50 billion euros (65 billion euros) over the next two years to help drag the country out of recession.

Key elements include public investment in infrastructure projects such as roads and schools as well as cuts in income tax and contributions to health and unemployment insurance.

Berlin - Business confidence in Germany has defied the current global economic gloom by chalking up an unexpected increase in January, a key survey released Tuesday showed.

A major test of the economic mood in Europe, the closely- watched Ifo business confidence index marked the start of the new year by edging up to 83 points this month.

Analysts had predicted that it would fall to 81.5 points.