Sabine Siebold & Gareth Jones, Berlin – The German government confirmed on Wednesday the sale of 104 used Leopard 2 tanks and 50 armored personnel carriers by industrial group Rheinmetall to Indonesia.

Arms sales are a sensitive issue in Germany, given its Nazi past and the role of arms makers like Krupp in fuelling 19th and 20th century wars, and the political opposition is critical of deals with countries with a poor human rights record.

A defense source told Reuters last week of the sale to Indonesia. The government has a practice of not commenting on such decisions but Wednesday's confirmation came in the form of a written reply to a request from the opposition Greens party.

Indonesia, southeast Asia's largest economy, had previously indicated it would buy 130 Leopard tanks from Rheinmetall as part of a $15 billion five-year drive to modernize its military.

The German government did not say how much the deal was worth but Indonesia said last year the value of the initial agreement to buy 130 tanks was $280 million.

Indonesia, which has economic growth of above 6 percent, is wary of being left behind as China, Vietnam, Thailand and other Asian nations ramp up defense spending.

This year it announced plans to buy more than a dozen Russian Sukhoi fighter jets as well as domestically made, missile-equipped patrol ships.