Austria said it wants to seize Adolf Hitler's birthplace from its private owner in a bid to end a bitter legal battle and stop the house from becoming a neo-Nazi shrine on Saturday.<br />"We are currently examining the creation of a law which would force a change of ownership and pass the property to the Republic of Austria," interior ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundboeck said.<br />"We have come to the conclusion over the past few years that expropriation is the ony way to avoid the building being used for the purposes of Nazi" sympathisers, he stated.<br />The plan would involve the state making an offer of compensation to the current owner, he added.
