Germany's interior minister has suggested that the country cannot build a 5G mobile network without Chinese tech giant Huawei, going against pressure from the U.S. to exclude the company for security concerns reported AP news on Saturday.

Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said Germany could enforce strict standards to protect itself from possible sabotage when introducing foreign technologies, but it cannot just ban it for a possibility.

"I'm against taking a product off the market just because there is a possibility that something might happen," Seehofer was quoted as saying.

He estimated that shutting out Chinese providers could delay building the new network by 5 to 10 years, wrote AP citing reporting from the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

The U.S. has been trying to pressure its European allies to ban the Chinese telecom giant for alleged espionage risks. But UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said recently that the U.S. has to suggest an alternative if it wants to push the UK to exclude Huawei from its 5G network building.

Meanwhile, Britain's BT and Vodafone, Britain's two largest telecoms companies, are also considering urging Prime Minister Boris Johnson not to risk the rollout of next-generation mobile networks by banning China's Huawei, Reuters reported on Saturday.

Read more: Huawei or the highway: UK PM says Brits deserve best 5G technology

Vodafone, which uses Huawei's equipment in its radio network, has previously said a blanket ban on the Chinese company would cost millions of pounds and significantly slow down the rollout of 5G networks.

It paused the deployment of the company's equipment in its data-heavy core networks a year ago until Western governments give the company a full security clearance.

BT also uses Huawei's equipment in networks, but it is not deployed in the intelligent core of its fixed-line network, and it is removing it from the core of its mobile network.

Huawei vice president Victor Zhang said on Tuesday he was confident the UK government would make a decision based upon evidence, "as opposed to unsubstantiated allegations".

Chinese Ambassador to Germany Wu Ken on Thursday stressed at a business conference that the building of 5G network in Germany, should be based on technical standards, product quality, and equal treatment of all suppliers.

Wu also said that the Chinese government has no legal requirements for enterprises to collect data, and has never required enterprises to install "backdoors." The German government also hasn't received information so far indicating that Huawei equipment has stolen intelligence. If Germany excludes Huawei from the 5G market, then this is not only discrimination but also a false signal of protectionism, Wu added.

French junior economy minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher in November said there is no exclusion against Huawei. As one of the top three equipment makers in France, Huawei takes 25-percent market share there.

Norway's largest mobile operator Telenor in December also said it will continue working with Huawei for its 5G telecoms network, as it has been working with Huawei for 10 years.

(With input from Reuters)