GERMANY: Germany's Justice Minister came under pressure to resign yesterday as she struggled to explain her alleged comparison of the US President, Mr Bush, to Adolf Hitler.
According to a newspaper report, Ms Herta Däubler-Gmelin said Mr Bush was using Iraq to distract from domestic difficulties. She added that this was a popular method and was used by Hitler.
"Those words used are not my words, and were not authorised by me," she told journalists in Berlin yesterday.
The remarks provoked outrage in Washington and among opposition politicians in Berlin ahead of tomorrow's general election.
Schwäbische Tagblatt, the newspaper which printed Ms Däubler-Gmelin's remarks, stood by its story yesterday.
"This is what she said. Those were her words in the newspaper," said Mr Christoph Müller, who wrote the story.
He said she authorised the remarks, something the minister denies. "I said that in the US, President Bush had been accused of using Iraq to distract from his domestic difficulties," she said. "I said we know of this from our own history."
When she saw one of those present shake his head, she says she made clear that she was not comparing Mr Bush with Hitler.
She told reporters that she wished a tape recording had been made.
"I am amazed at the article. It is absurd and slanderous to connect me to a comparison between a democratically-elected politician and Nazi leaders.
"I deeply regret that this has thrown shadows on German-American relations and I am here to clear that up."
Dr Edmund Stoiber, the conservative challenger hoping to unseat Chancellor Gerhard Schröder tomorrow, said the remarks were "unspeakable and intolerable".
Ms Däubler-Gmelin said the calls for her resignation were an "obvious election tactic that people will see through".
The alleged remarks continued to make waves in the US yesterday. The Simon Wiesenthal centre said in a statement: "We are outraged that such a respected and thoughtful representative of the German government would in any way compare the strategy or substance of US policy vis-a-vis mass murderer Saddam Hussein to Adolf Hitler."
Chancellor Schröder apologised to President Bush yesterday for the offence caused by the alleged remarks. White House spokesman Mr Ari Fleischer called the remarks "outrageous and inexplicable" and Secretary of State Colin Powell rang German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer to complain.
Mr Schröder wrote to President Bush, saying: "I want to let you know how much I regret the fact that alleged comments by the German justice minister have given an impression that has offended you."
He said he had accepted Ms Daeubler-Gmelin's denial and added: "Let me assure you that there is no place at my cabinet table for anyone who makes a connection between the American president and such a criminal."