Berlin city opens arms to Lebanon refugees

BERLIN, July 24 (Reuters) The German capital Berlin is ready to take in refugees from Lebanon, the city's senator for social issues said in a newspaper interview, adding that other German states should do the same.

''I think that the states should prepare themselves for when the pressure becomes greater,'' Heidi Knake-Werner, the city state's most senior official for social services, told the Berliner Morgenpost in an interview to be published tomorrow.

''Berlin is prepared for taking in refugees,'' she said, adding that the city of 3 million people could absorb several hundred refugees on a temporary basis.

More than 100,000 people displaced by Israeli bombing are being housed in schools and other temporary shelters across the country, the Lebanese government has said.

REUTERS MQA RK2140