A court in the German city of Hamburg on Tuesday, May 17 banned the author of a poem lampooning Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan from publicly reciting passages from his work, AFP says.

The court ruled that only six lines of the 24-line poem by German comedian Jan Boehmermann could be recited, offering the Turkish leader a partial legal victory.

The poem accused Erdogan of bestiality and paedophilia and has caused a storm in Germany over freedom of speech. Chancellor Angela Merkel has come in for criticism after she authorized possible criminal proceedings against Boehmermann.

Any prosecution of the comedian would be launched under the rarely enforced section 103 of Germany's criminal code -- insulting organs or representatives of foreign states -- which carries up to three years in prison.

Boehmermann's own recital of his so-called "Defamatory Poem" on national television in March sparked a diplomatic firestorm after he admitted the work flouted Germany's legal limits to free speech and was intended as a provocation, AFP says.

In Tuesday's ruling the court found that "Erdogan does not have to put up with the expression of certain passages in view of their outrageous content attacking (his) honor."

The court found that such material overstepped the boundaries of decency in attacking the Turkish leader.