US: Still seething over the perceived anti-American tone of the German election campaign, Washington showed little inclination yesterday to patch up US-German relations, described as "poisoned" by the White House, writes Conor O'Clery.
Breaking with protocol, President Bush declined to make the customary congratulatory telephone call to the German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schröder, after his narrow re-election on Sunday.
Even the decision by Mr Schröder to exclude from his cabinet the former justice minister, Ms Herta Däubler-Gmelin, who allegedly said that Mr Bush, like Hitler, wanted to use a war to distract attention from domestic issues, has not smoothed things over.
Mr Bush was infuriated by the Ms Däubler-Gmelin's remark and "believes that Schröder created the environment for that kind of comment to take place," a senior administration official was quoted as saying. The President reportedly expressed his anger about Mr Schröder in recent phone conversations with world leaders, including the Russian President, Mr Vladimir Putin.
The US Secretary of Defence, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, and the National Security Adviser, Ms Condeleezza Rice, have publicly spoken of the Schröder campaign "poisoning" the relationship. Yesterday the White House spokesman, Mr Ari Fleischer, said that because of the way the campaign was waged and its "anti-Americanism", it would not be the "natural result" to go back to what the relationship was before.
Mr Schröder sent Mr Bush an apology over his Justice Minister's remark - which she has denied making - but White House officials viewed it as "arrogant". Mr Schröder's opposition to US policy on Iraq, global warming, the death penalty, the International Criminal Court and US-EU trade issues also displeased Washington, an administration official said.
In contrast to the outraged tone from the White House, the US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, struck a more diplomatic note.
"Germany is one of our closest friends," he told the Russian newspaper, Izvestia, "and differences and difficulties will arise in any relationship from time to time, but the strength of the relationship between the United States and Germany will remain and, I expect, will thrive and grow."
In a move to mend bridges, the German Defence Minister, Mr Peter Struck, said Germany and the Netherlands had offered to take command of the international peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan when Turkey's mandate expires at the end of the year.
Germany would probably provide more troops, relieving pressure on US and British forces and thus indirectly helping any effort against Iraq.