It's enough that they adopted the goal of spreading Nazi ideology

Otto Schily

He said some of those arrested after a recent spate of attacks on foreigners in Germany had been inspired by music played at concerts organised by the group.

But he said there was no evidence directly implicating Blood and Honour in the attacks.

The ban comes as a German Government commission considers whether to outlaw the biggest far-right group in Germany, the National Democratic Party (NPD), because of the racist attacks.

Blood and Honour has about 200 German members, Mr Schily said.

Raids

In a series of raids, police confiscated propaganda material and bank books listing deposits "in five figures," he said.

"Germany is the first nation to fight this organisation this way," Mr Schily said of the ban against Blood and Honour.

Germany is considering banning the NPD

The group was founded in the UK and spread to Germany in 1994, where it has ties to the NPD. It is now active worldwide.

"It's enough that they adopted the goal of spreading Nazi ideology," Mr Schily said, justifying the ban. The group's activities "poison the bodies and hearts" of young people, he said.

"We are looking into whether it will be necessary to ban other groups," Mr Schily added.

Germany is currently engrossed in a wide-ranging debate over ways to tackle right-wing extremism.

Last month three German skinheads were sentenced to long jail terms for the murder of a Mozambican man in a vicious racist attack in the east German town of Dessau.

The murder was one of three this year blamed on extreme-right groups.

Such attacks were further highlighted at the end of July when a bomb in Duesseldorf seriously injured 10 foreigners - six of them Jews.