PRAGUE (AFP-EJP)---The western Czech city of Pilsen said Thursday it was banning a planned weekend neo-Nazi march on the 66th anniversary of the World War II deportation of Jews from the area. 

The demonstration -- expected to draw hundreds of Czech and German extremists -- was set to take place Saturday in the historic streets of the Czech Republic’s fourth-biggest city.

But at a press conference, Mayor Pavel Roedl said he was revoking his earlier decision to allow the march on free-speech grounds -- a decision that triggered outrage.

"I do not want to be the mayor of a city where the Nazi salute can be freely made," Roedl said, amid police fears that the march might lead to violent clashes with counter-demonstrating anarchists.

The route of the march would have taken the neo-Nazis near Pilsen’s Great Synagogue - which is said to be the third biggest in the world-, where the local Jewish community plans a memorial gathering on Saturday.

German police said earlier this week that they will take all possible measures to prevent German extremists from taking part in the Pilsen march.

Oliver Platzer, spokesman for the Bavarian Interior Minister, told the Czech CTK news agency Wednesday that Bavarian authorities are monitoring the activities of German extreme rightwing radicals.

Since the Czech Republic joined the EU Schengen zone on December 21, border checks between the Czech Republic and Germany have been lifted.

Neo-Nazis -- a fringe group in Czech politics -- tried to march in Prague’s old Jewish quarter in November 2007, coinciding with the anniversary of ‘Kristallnacht,’ a Nazi pogrom against Jews.

Police prevented that march from going ahead.

Some 2,605 Jews living in the Pilsen area were deported to the Terezin concentration camp, 50 kilometres north of the Czech capital, in January 1942, three years after Nazi Germany occupied the country.