German federal prosecutors said Friday they had brought charges against a German-Moroccan national on suspicion of spying for Rabat against opposition members.

The federal prosecutor's office said the 59-year-old suspect identified only as Bagdad A. was believed to have worked as an agent for the Moroccan secret services in Germany from May 2007 to February this year.

The German economy, Europe's biggest, will not be able to escape the crisis and may even flirt briefly with recession early next year, but is well placed to rebound strongly, the Bundesbank said Friday.

The German central bank, in its latest updated twice-yearly forecasts, said there were "indications that economic activity may actually fall in the final quarter of 2012 and the first quarter of 2013."

Germany's opposition Social Democrats will on Sunday launch their campaign to unseat Chancellor Angela Merkel next year, throwing their backing behind her former finance minister to challenge her.

Delegates from the center-left SPD party gather in the northern city of Hanover to formally hand Peer Steinbrueck, 65, the unenviable task of beating the hugely popular Merkel, often called the world's most powerful woman.

The German government said Wednesday it had approved participation in a NATO mission to deploy Patriot missiles to help member state Turkey defend its border against Syria and will send up to 400 troops.

The foreign and defense ministries said in a joint statement that the mandate, which is expected to be presented to parliament early next week, would run to January 31, 2014.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday applauded the Czech Republic for its "friendship and courage" as the only European state to have opposed Palestine's status upgrade at the United Nations.

Prague joined allies Israel, the United States and Canada in opposing the Palestinian status bid. The U.N. General Assembly on Thursday approved non-member observer status for Palestine by an overwhelming vote of 138 against nine, with 41 abstentions.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was re-elected head of her conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) Tuesday by more than 97 percent of delegates' votes at a two-day party congress.

It was Merkel's best result since she took over as chairman of the CDU in 2000 and comes as she gears up for fighting for a third term at the helm of Europe's top economy in elections expected in September.

Germany warned Syria Tuesday against any use of chemical weapons, ahead of a NATO meeting on Turkey's request for deployment of Patriot missiles to counter a potential threat from its neighbor.

"I can only warn the Syrian regime: a use of chemical weapons would be totally unacceptable," German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said ahead of the gathering of his NATO counterparts in Brussels.

French President Francois Hollande said Monday he was worried by Israel's plans to build new settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, but indicated Paris was not ready to back concerted punishment in response.

"We do not want to start thinking in terms of sanctions," Hollande said during a Franco-Italian summit in Lyon.

Germany said Monday it was "deeply concerned" about Israeli plans for new settlements but would not "for the moment" summon its ambassador to Berlin.

Ahead of talks this week between Chancellor Angela Merkel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert called on Israel to withdraw its plan to build new Jewish settler homes.

Rescuing Greece from economic collapse is in Germany's best interests, Chancellor Angela Merkel told Sunday's edition of the Bild newspaper, after German lawmakers approved billions of euros in international aid for Athens.

Helping Greece is "in Germany's interests because measures are always taken with all of the euro zone in mind for the benefit of all members, including Germany," she told the newspaper.