BERLIN -- Under fierce attack by political conservatives, the German government backed away yesterday from a bold plan to invite millions of foreigners to become German citizens.

Instead, the government of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder approved a watered-down version of its plan to rewrite Germany's 1913 citizenship law, which defines Germans by bloodlines rather than by residence.

Under the proposal -- which is expected to be approved in parliament by May -- foreigners may apply for citizenship after living in Germany for eight years instead of the 15 required by law. Most children born in Germany will for the first time become German citizens automatically, regardless of their heritage.

However, the plan jettisons one of the key reforms demanded by immigrants rights groups, a provision allowing citizenship applicants to keep their original passports. The new proposal also would force the children of foreigners to choose at age 23 between their German passports and the passports of their parents.

More than 7 million foreigners live in Germany, nearly a third of them Turks. Though they make up nearly 10 percent of the population, few become German citizens because they are reluctant to give up their original passports in a country where xenophobic hate crimes are common and where even the more tolerant citizens persistently view all non-Germans as aliens.

Pub Date: 3/17/99