German troops pushed into much of eastern Europe during WWII

The exhumed bodies of thousands of German soldiers killed in World War II have been stored in a Czech Republic factory for three years, reports say.

Some 4,000 sets of remains have been awaiting burial since they were exhumed by a German war graves association, the Czech newspaper MfDnes said.

Plans to establish a permanent cemetery in Prague have run aground because of a lack of funds, the newspaper reported.

The remains include soldiers who fought across eastern Europe during the war.

The remains have been stored in containers in the town of Usti-nad-Labem until the German association draws up final plans for their permanent burial.

'Solution needed'

But funding for new cemeteries in the Czech Republic has run out, MfDnes quoted German officials as saying.

"We are very sorry, but our People's Association for Care for Wartime Graves has run out of money, so I cannot say what will be done with the remains," embassy spokesman Sebastian Gerhardt told Dnes.

The newspaper quoted Fritz Kirchmeier of the graves association, as saying that his organisation would now seek a cheaper site outside central Prague.

"The main thing is to find a proper solution in a spirit of good neighbourliness," another embassy spokesman told the AFP news agency.

Nine cemeteries for German war dead have been established in the Czech Republic since the collapse of communism in 1989, MfDnes said.