Incoming German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle has said Berlin will seek the withdrawal of US nuclear weapons based in Germany in support of Washington's fervor for a world free of nuclear arms.

"We will take President Obama at his word and enter talks with our allies so that the last of the nuclear weapons still stationed in Germany, relics of the Cold War, can finally be removed," Deutsche Welle (DW) network quoted Westerwelle as saying.

Westerwelle made the comments Sunday at a meeting of his business-friendly FDP party — which became a partner of reelected Chancellor Angela Merkel's new coalition government after reaching an agreement with Merkel's Conservatives.

"Germany must be free of nuclear weapons," he said, adding that he would personally make efforts towards that purpose.

Merkel confirmed that the goal was shared by both partners in the coalition and that the two sides would approach NATO and the US to remove the weapons, without 'any independent action'.

Meanwhile, the new government, which is due to take office on October 28, stormed a day of criticism on Sunday, with opposition leaders and the media complaining of a fiscally reckless and socially unjust plan.

Some 20 US atomic warheads are believed to have been deployed to Germany during the United States' nuclear weaponry rush in the 1950s, but no official information is available to public on the whereabouts of the weapons.

Some of the missiles are believed to be stationed at the Buechel airbase in the western German state of Rhineland- Palatinate, DW said on its website.

ZHD/AKM