The number of German-language racist or extreme rightwing Internet sites has tripled since 1999 to around 1,000, North RhineWestphalia justice minister Mr Joechen Dieckmann said today.
In a statement on Internet crime on the eve of a conference in Duesseldorf on rightwing extremism on the Internet, Mr Dieckmann said Internet access providers had a duty to control content.
Many of the offending sites are based abroad, notably in the United States where they enjoy the protection of free speech, to the frustration of the German authorities. They would be illegal on German soil.
In March, the German government said the number of such sites had gone from 32 in 1996 to more than 800 in 2000.
At the beginning of August an association named "Together against the extreme right on the Internet" said it had helped closed down 118 such sites in six months by reporting them to their site providers.
AFP