Germany's Bundesbank president, Mr Ernst Welteke, remained under pressure to resign yesterday despite refunding Dresdner Bank half of a hotel bill worth nearly €8,000 it paid after he participated in its euro launch party.

But the move has failed to impress the German finance minister, Mr Hans Eichel, who declined to publicly back Mr Welteke, 61, his former finance minister in the central state of Hesse.

"I emphasise that all consequences in the Bundesbank area are for the bank itself to take," said Mr Eichel in Berlin yesterday. The Bundesbank was independent, he said, but, "according to the rules we have in government, such events are not possible".

Mr Eichel's spokesman added that Mr Welteke's behaviour would "not have been tolerated from a minister".

Der Spiegel, a weekly current affairs magazine, revealed on Sunday that the bank paid a bill worth €7,661 for a four-night stay at Berlin's exclusive Adlon Hotel for the Mr Welteke, his wife, two sons and one son's girlfriend.

Mr Welteke said at the weekend he was a victim of a "smear campaign" by Der Spiegel and denied there was a conflict of interest. Yesterday he said the matter was a "misunderstanding".

"Dresdner Bank offered to take over the hotel reservation and costs," he said in a statement, adding that the Bundesbank had just paid back the cost of two of the four nights, when he did not participate in Dresdner events.

Mr Welteke has been president of the Bundesbank since 1999 and also serves as member of the governing council of the European Central Bank (ECB).

A member of the ruling Social Democratic Party (SPD) for 30 years, he has nevertheless been a loud critic of the SPD government's repeated breaches of the Stability and Growth Pact. Yesterday, leading SPD officials distanced themselves from the Bundesbank president.

Despite his attempts to end the matter, the calls for Mr Welteke to resign grew louder yesterday.

"I find it interesting when the head of the Bundesbank, among whose tasks are to supervise the banks, lets his private enjoyment be paid by a bank," said Mr Karl Heinz Däke, president of Germany's Taxpayers' Association.

"Just as for any other civil servant, the rules forbidding the acceptance of recompense and gifts apply to Mr Welteke."

The finance ministry in Berlin is examining whether the matter breaches the civil servant code.