BERLIN, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- The number of violent neo-Nazi crimes in the German capital more than doubled over the past year, local reports said Friday.

    The number of neo-Nazi attacks in Berlin this year rose to 100 from 52 last year, Berlin's police chief Dieter Glietsch told Deutsche Presse-Agentur on Friday.

    Nation wide the rightist crime rose by 20 percent during the first nine months of 2006, said Glietsch.

    "This is a new development which really fuels concern," he said.

    The police chief attributed the rise of the crimes to Germany's failure to ban the rightist National Democratic of Germany (NPD) in 2003.

    "Ever since then, the right-wing extremists have become more aggressive and less restrained because they apparently feel safer," said Glietsch.

    The NPD, which advocates hostility towards immigrants, has been expanding its influence in the country especially after winning parliament seats in three German states, all from the economically hard hit Eastern Germany.

    Germany's domestic security agency, the Verfassungschuts, said in its latest report that there are about 39,000 organized rightists in Germany.