Berlin, Sep 6 (Xinhua) Tens of thousands of people from Germany, France, Denmark and Austria have staged a rally in downtown Berlin Saturday to protest against a government plan to extend the operation of the country's nuclear power plants.

Germany's 17 nuclear power plants are due to be shut down by 2020.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU) and the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) parties want to extend that deadline.

However, parties like centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and environment group, Greens, oppose the move.

An organiser of the rally said people fear the CDU and FDP would give a green light to the plan if they win the general election later this month.