Two leading members of the cabinet have promised to clamp down on right-wing extremism in Switzerland. The interior minister, Ruth Dreifuss, and the justice minister, Ruth Metzler, discussed the issue during separate visits to Germany.

Speaking in Berlin on Tuesday, Dreifuss said Switzerland was taking the problem of neo-nazism very seriously. But she said it was impossible to combat the problem without more international cooperation.

She said that in her view the fight against the use of the Internet by the extreme right was particularly important.

International cooperation to combat the rise in extremism was also the subject of a meeting of alpine ministers in the German border town of Constance, attended by Metzler.

In a joint statement, the ministers - from Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Italy, France and Liechtenstein - agreed to work together to counter the growing right-wing threat, illegal immigration, trafficking in immigrants, and money laundering.

The ministers also criticised the United States and Canada for doing too little to combat right-wing propaganda on the Internet.

Although the neo-nazi problem is worst in Germany, Switzerland has recently also seen an increase in extremist activity.

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