Reports from Denmark say the yacht belonging to the late East German leader, Erich Honecker, is to be put up for auction following the failure of its Malta-based owner to pay harbour costs.

The sixty-one metre yacht -- equipped with electronic bugs and bullet-proof windows, and built to withstand poison gas attacks -- has been docked in Copenhagen harbour since 1990, incurring costs of more than fourteen-thousand dollars.

It was first sold as part of the privatisation programme introduced after German re-unification.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service