GERMANY: Germany's Justice Minister denied yesterday that she had compared US President Bush to Adolf Hitler.
A regional newspaper, the Schwaebisches Tagblatt, claimed that Ms Hertha Däubler-Gmelin said in a discussion on Iraq: "Mr Bush wants to distract from his domestic political difficulties. That is a popular method; Hitler did that, too."
The newspaper quoted her as adding that if the present insider-trading laws were in place in the 1980s, "Mr Bush would be sitting in prison."
With her Social Democrats fighting out the tough final days of a campaign for Sunday's election, Ms Däubler-Gmelin reportedly made the remark while talking to metalworkers about US plans for a possible attack on Baghdad.
She said yesterday evening: "I was amazed at the press article because it is wrong and slanderous to connect me with a comparison between a democratically elected politician and a Nazi leader."
Opposition parties called for her resignation, but Chancellor Gerhard Schröder - who has revived his re-election bid with a firm stand against a US attack on Iraq - spoke out in support of his minister.
"I have no reason to doubt \ statement," he said yesterday.
"Anyone who compared the American President with a criminal would have no place in the government."
However, White House spokesman Mr Ari Fleischer described the comments as "outrageous and inexplicable".
A senior US official, who declined to be named, said: "The President was very angered by these comments, and (National Security Advisor Ms Condoleezza) Rice took this very personally as well.
"We have made our views known to the German government both here and in Berlin," the official said, calling the comments an "ad hominem attack on the President of the United States, a close ally and friend of Germany".
Meanwhile, Mr Edmund Stoiber, Mr Schröder's conservative challenger in Sunday's election, has said he would not allow the US to use Germany as a base from which to attack Iraq.
He said he would "definitely never" allow US to use German military bases if it "goes it alone" on Iraq. The comment caused confusion in Berlin and Washington yesterday, as Mr Stoiber had attacked the Chancellor for opposing any military action against Iraq.