Germany's motor transport authority KBA conducted blanket tests of foreign and domestic car brands in the wake of Volkswagen's vehicle emissions-test cheating, but found many foreign car brands also showed high pollution levels.

Following the KBA vehicle tests, Germany's top manufacturers agreed to recall 630,000 vehicles to tweak diesel engine software technology blamed for causing high pollution.

While Germany's KBA has the authority to order a recall of vehicles which were given pan-European road certification via German channels, it relies on the cooperation of foreign authorities to chase down vehicles from foreign car brands which may have gained pan-European road worthiness certification via other markets.

"We are in contact with all the relevant authorities. I expect that they too will clamp down as we did, and demand recalls," Dobrindt is quoted telling the paper.

If authorities in foreign countries fail to respond to German requests for recalls of vehicles with excessive pollution levels, Germany will go public with some of the results, the paper said.

"I will talk to my international colleagues. Should a voluntary recall fail, we will discuss the matter publicly", Dobrindt told the paper.

(Reporting by Edward Taylor)