A small aircraft crashed onto a lawn between Germany's parliament and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's office in central Berlin on Friday, killing the pilot as it burst into flames, police and witnesses said.

The single-engined, ultra-light aircraft crashed a couple of hundred metres from the Reichstag building that houses the lower house of parliament and about the same distance from the chancellery, witnesses said.

Personnel from the parliament rushed over and pulled the burning pilot from the wreckage, they said.

Berlin Interior Minister Ehrhart Koerting told a news conference at the scene there was no indication the crash was in any way related to terrorism.

"Nothing indicates that this had anything to do with terrorism. It appears at this point that it may have been some sort of accident or a case of suicide," Koerting said.

The plane appeared to have taken off from somewhere in the eastern state of Brandenburg that surrounds the German capital, he told reporters, adding that the pilot's identity was unknown.

David Silveira, a tourist from Brazil, said he saw the aircraft flying upside down and out of control near the parliament building.

"If he had wanted to fly into the Reichstag he could have. He was clearly out of control and trying to land the plane," Silveira said. The pilot was a heavy-set, elderly man, he added.

Koerting told reporters such aircraft are generally permitted to fly over the capital.

Asked whether security would have to be reviewed, he said: "That's something we'll have to look at in coming days."