The German military would move to combat possible terrorist attacks during the football World Cup tournament if police are not available, German Defence Minister Franz-Josef Jung said Wednesday.

"If such an attack occurs, it must be clear that the German military will realize its task of protecting the people," he said.

"We will intervene, for example, if a state of emergency is declared, even if no constitutional clarification has been reached," German media quoted Jung as saying in Brussels.

Jung said that German police forces can not defend against terror threats from the air or from the sea, but the military can act on German territory legally even without a new law demanded by Germany's supreme court on the deployment of soldiers within the German borders.

"Today inner and outer threats are no longer as easy to separate as they were before," Jung said, "We will never take up police duties, but in an attack from the air or sea, the police can do little. In the event, only the German military can help."

Germany needs a clarification of its constitution, said Jung, who pushed for a change in the constitution late last year so as to allow deployment of the military inside Germany under certain circumstances.