BERLIN, Oct 6 (AFP) - Israel wants to buy 103 armoured cars manufactured in the United States under licence from a German firm to patrol the occupied Palestinian territories, the Financial Times Deutschland reported on Wednesday.
The US firm Textron is authorised to make the Dingo 2 armoured car on behalf of the German firm Krauss-Maffei, the paper reported.
Talks between Israel and the United States could begin after the expiry on Friday of a deadline for the US Congress to raise objections to such a deal.
The Dingo 2, already being used in the Balkans and Afghanistan, is a relatively fast all-terrain vehicle capable of carrying up to eight soldiers and is impervious to small arms fire and artillery fragments. It can also protect its occupants from mine blasts.
A Krauss-Maffei spokeswoman told the paper that under the terms of the licencing contract any sale of the vehicles to a third country would have to first gain the approval of Germany.
"Possible exports to third countries are foreseen in the contract," she explained.
Asked about the purchase at a routine government press conference Wednesday, a spokesman said that Berlin had received "neither a preliminary inquiry nor a request for the export of Dingo 2 troop transport vehicles."
"Therefore I don't wish to comment on the matter," he said.
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's government refused in 2002 to provide Israel with armoured vehicles over concerns that they could be used in the Palestinian territories.
However, under its commitments to NATO, Berlin said last week that it would supply Iraq with around 20 weaponless Fuchs armoured vehicles.