GERMANY: Berlin has denied a report that two German agents in Baghdad passed on Saddam Hussein's defence plans for the capital to US officials a month before the start of the 2003 Iraq war.
Yesterday's New York Times printed information from what it called a secret US military dossier suggesting that the two officials, from Germany's BND secret service, were co-operating more closely with the US than Berlin officials have admitted at a time when Chancellor Schröder was publicly questioning the legitimacy of the war.
On Thursday, Berlin issued a report that played down the involvement of the two agents - two months after their wartime presence in Iraq was revealed - as opposition parties decide whether to call for a full parliamentary inquiry into the affair.
Government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said yesterday that the report was "wrong in every detail" and that the BND and the government had "no knowledge" of such a plan.
"The allegation that two BND agents had Saddam Hussein's plan for defending the Iraqi capital and, one month prior to the start of the war passed it on to the United States, as described in the New York Times today, is false," said Mr Wilhelm.
According to the newspaper report, the German officials obtained a copy of Saddam's defence plan for the city, including a sketch apparently outlining the circular deployments of troops to form lines of defence around the city's main access roads, with his most loyal troops at the centre.
The newspaper offers no information about the German spies' source, but says they passed the documents up the chain of command and that a German intelligence officer in Qatar provided a copy to the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).
Green Party politician Christian Ströbele, who criticised last week's government report, said the Times report was "obviously targeted indiscretion from American secret service and intelligence circles, though that doesn't necessarily mean it's all wrong".
The Greens have called for a parliamentary inquiry, even though that risks embarrassing the former Green Party foreign minister, Joschka Fischer.
Free Democrats spokesman Max Stadler said yesterday: "If this information turns out to be confirmed then it would naturally be a dramatic turn of events. But we have to be careful because similar accusations in the past have turned out not be true."