BERLIN A court will examine July 4 a request by former chancellor Helmut Kohl to bar publication of the content of his telephone conversations bugged by the East German secret police, AFP quoted a court spokesman as announcing Tuesday.

Kohl's lawyers applied on December 8 to the Berlin Administrative Court to prevent the publication planned by Marianne Birthler, the new president of the special commission in charge of managing the files which were kept by the Stasi.

Birthler had initially intended to make those concerning Kohl public at the end of January, but in view of the legal controversy agreed to await a judicial ruling.

Kohl's argument is that the "spy-gathered documents" were "put together as a result of serious violations of human dignity through criminal activity" and that the law should be there to protect the victims of Stasi activities.

Birthler and her supporters argue that other German political figures have had their Stasi files published, despite the damage that has caused them, and that he should not be an exception.

As a public figure, the argument goes, the former chancellor cannot demand the same protection as an ordinary private citizen in view of the public or historical interest in his affairs.

Kohl has won the support of Interior Minister Otto Schily, a Social Democrat, for his bid to keep the bugged conversations under wraps, but other members of the government, such as the Greens, do not agree.

Stasi documents released after unification in 1990 indicate that the service was listening in on Kohl from the time he became chancellor in 1982 until the collapse of the East German state in 1989.

Interest in the content of Kohl's confidential conversations has been heightened in the belief that they could throw some light on the illegal funding of the Christian Democratic Union while he was in power.

Kohl has admitted accepting undeclared donations to the party he headed for 25 years but has refused to identify the donors, saying he gave his word they would remain anonymous.