SPD agrees to asylum deal

Bonn (Reuter) - The opposition Social Democrats (SPD) yesterday approved Germany's hard-fought compromise accord to stop an influx of foreigners who have become targets of neo-Nazi violence.

The SPD parliamentary group voted to accept the deal with Chancellor Helmut Kohl's government, paving the way for Bonn's asylum laws to be tightened. The deal had been thrown into doubt by calls from SPD members linking the planned asylum changes to companion treaties with Poland and Czechoslovakia.

Meanwhile, the German government said it had ordered an investigation into the right- wing Republicans as a possible anti-democratic group. The Republicans are the biggest of dozens of far-right parties.