Berlin  - Germany is to oppose European Union plans to deploy full-body scanners at airports as protection against hijackers, a Berlin government spokesman said Friday.

The devices have been described as "strip scanners" because they construct an image of each traveller's body without clothing.

"I can tell you with complete clarity that we are not going to cooperate in this mischief," a Federal Interior Ministry spokeswoman said Friday at a government news conference.

Only the previous day, German federal police said they would commence a study by engineers of the devices, which are already in use at some US airports.

There has already been an outcry this week among EU parliamentarians at plans to test the scanners at European airports as an alternative to the current practice of stroking hand-held metal detectors over travellers' bodies.

Proponents say the scanners can detect ceramic knives and plastic explosives which are invisible to current detectors, and also avoid the need for guards to "pat down" travellers with their hands. (dpa)