Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf is likely to remain unavailable in Germany after Bavaria's state government said it will try to keep it out of publication when copyright expires in 2015.

This reverses a previous decision to support new editions with critical commentary.

Mein Kampf is not banned in Germany, but Bavaria has used its ownership of the copyright to block publication. The copyright expires 70 years after the author's death.

The Bavarian governor's chief of staff, Christine Haderthauer, said Hitler's anti-semitic book amounts to incitement and the government will file a criminal complaint if anyone tries to publish it in future.

Governor Horst Seehofer pointed to Bavaria's participation in a drive to have modern Germany's main far-right party banned and said that does not fit with supporting publication of Mein Kampf.