RPT-New Czech PM against plans for expulsions centre

(Repeats story published late on Tuesday)

PRAGUE (Reuters) - New Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said on Tuesday he opposed plans by a group representing Germans forced out of eastern Europe after World War Two to build a permanent centre on the expulsions.

Reiterating a long-standing Czech position, the prime minister, leader of the right-wing Civic Democrats, said his government wanted relations with Germany to focus on "the present and the future".

"I consider attempts to build the so-called Centre Against Expulsions to be counterproductive, damaging Czech-German relations, not helping European integration, nor the atmosphere in central Europe," he said in a statement.

The Centre Against Expulsions, a foundation linked with the League of German Expellees, plans to build a permanent centre on the subject in Berlin.

The League represents 12.5 million Germans evicted from eastern Europe after the war, including about three million from former Czechoslovakia.

Topolanek said he would coordinate the Czech position with Poland, which also opposes the plan.

An exhibition on the expulsions opened in Berlin last month, which the League's leader Erika Steinbach, a member of the ruling Christian Democrats, sees as a step towards setting up a permanent centre. ((Reporting by Jan Lopatka, editing by Myra MacDonald; prague.newsroom@reuters.com; Reuters Messaging: jan.lopatka.reuters.com@reuters.net; +420-224 190 474))

Keywords: CZECH GERMANY EXPULSIONS